Number 71

Kentucky's 71st casualty in Smirky/Darth's spreading Middle East clusterfuck is Eric Terhune of Lexington.

The 34-year old was a captain in the Marine Corps and also a helicopter pilot. Terhune was on his third tour. He spent the first two in Iraq before heading to Afghanistan, where he'd been since April.

According to the Department of Defense, Terhune "died June 19 while conducting combat operations in Farah Province, Afghanistan. (He was) assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif."

The Herald-Leader reports today that family members of Terhune declined to comment Friday.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

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Number 70, With a Bullet

You may have noticed that the national and state flags in Kentucky have been flying at half-mast constantly for the last month.

The lowering of the flags has been in honor of soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thirteen of them since April 8, their deaths separated in time just enough that flags could not be raised after one funeral before another death brought it back down. All of them were assigned to Fort Campbell, but none of them called Kentucky home.

Until Wednesday.


Army Specialist Jeremy Gullett, 22, of Greenup, in northeastern Kentucky, died in Afghanistan when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. He was a member of Fort Campbell's storied 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles.

He leaves behind a wife and 21-month-old daughter.

He is the first Iraq/Afghanistan casualty from Kentucky since December 31, 2007. That four months and six days without a casualty is the longest we have gone without losing one of our own since a four-month, three-day lull from November 16 2004 to March 19 2005.

For four months and six days, we dared to believe that for Kentucky's sons and daughters at least, the worst was over.

Come to Greenup, John McCain. Come to Greenup to look Specialist Gullett's 21-month-old daughter in the eye and say it to her face:

Tell her your 1,000 Years in Iraq plan will ensure that she, her children, her grandchildren and their grandchildren into perpetuity will be able to die in a pointless, faked-cause war just like her daddy did.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

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2,185 Days

There is, however, one BIG difference between the two men. Osama knows exactly where Il Douche'™ is. Il Douche'™ doesn't have the vaguest idea where Osama is. Nor, does he care. Do you care? 2,185 days, and counting.

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"Poppies Will Make Them Sleep"

Indeed, that seems to have been the effect upon the Bush (Mis)Administration, as it slowly yet inevitably continues to lose ground on the first frontline in the War on Terra®.

Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show that Afghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world's crop, 3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press.

But counterdrug proposals by some U.S. officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said. The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication; arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders, corrupt officials; and on alternative crop production.

As poppies bloom, our coffers wilt as more money is thrown at the problem, in stunningly ineffective ways.

[P]roponents call [for] an "enhanced carrot-and-stick approach" to
supplement existing anti-drug efforts. They are the focus of the new $475 million program outlined in a 995-page report, the release
of which has been postponed twice and may be again delayed due to disagreements,
officials said.

Counternarcotics agents at the State Department had wanted to release a 123-page summary of the strategy last month and then again last week, but were forced to hold off because of concerns it may not be feasible, the officials said.

The program represents a 13 percent increase over the $420 million in U.S. counternarcotics aid to Afghanistan last year. It would adopt a bold new approach to "coercive eradication" and set out criteria for local officials to receive development assistance based on their cooperation, the officials said. [all emphasis mine]

The black hole of money, troops & resources that is the Afghanistan Campaign continues to grow, slowly yet inexorably. But, at least the cost of heroin should drop; that whole free-market supply-and-demand thing, ya know.

Perhaps this was part & parcel of the necon plan from the beginning. Since it is mostly the ungodly, gay-lovin', gun-hatin' Hollyweird liberal types that engage in heroin usage, a large contingent of the Left may be too distracted by stints in rehab to back the progessive cause. You'd have to admire such evil genius.

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