Jump to content

Talk:Coalition casualties in Afghanistan: Difference between revisions

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
BobaFett85 (talk | contribs)
Line 243: Line 243:
:::As for including US deaths in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, the only reason for that is simply because the US military does not provide casualty figures for Afghanistan alone.
:::As for including US deaths in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, the only reason for that is simply because the US military does not provide casualty figures for Afghanistan alone.
:::[[Special:Contributions/70.49.123.146|70.49.123.146]] ([[User talk:70.49.123.146|talk]]) 05:35, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
:::[[Special:Contributions/70.49.123.146|70.49.123.146]] ([[User talk:70.49.123.146|talk]]) 05:35, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

I did that edit anonymously only because I didn't want to bother signing in, but you know what I realy don't care, do what you want, I am starting a whole new article on Coalition deaths linked to the war itself and not just within the borders of the country, and that will be the article that will be used as a reference for the number of Coalition soldiers killed in the infobox of the conflict.[[User:BobaFett85|BobaFett85]] ([[User talk:BobaFett85|talk]]) 05:42, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Revision as of 05:42, 18 March 2009

WikiProject iconAfghanistan Unassessed
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Afghanistan, a project to maintain and expand Afghanistan-related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
???This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
???This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Rob van Doorn 20:15, 15 October 2006 (UTC)== Chapters, structure, notes to this article ==[reply]

Maybe we can start a dicussion also about the overall structure of this article?

Much regards,

Recent Edits

Please list only Coalition casualties in Afghanistan. Recent edits have been including US soldiers killed elsewhere. While these deaths may be part of Op Enduring Freedom, they do not belong on this page. Motorfix 01:03, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In regards to the removed South Korean death, I googled it, but there was not a single hit. Please use supplied link for reference.Motorfix 12:14, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have added this page. If anyone wants to combine this into a Casualties in the 2001 Invasion of Afghanistan page like the Iraq one, or to put it on the main page, then go ahead. I just thought we should do a page on the coalition casualties as well. PBP, 4 November 2004

61 American soldiers have been removed from the count of 333 who have died in operation Enduring freedom puting the number 272. OK I will agree not including the 14 soldiers killed in operation OEF Horn of Africa,14 soldiers killed in operation OEF Philippines and 5 soldiers killed in operation OEF Guantanamo bay. But that leaves 28 more soldiers. I guess you removed the soldiers that were killed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan and in the Arabian sea. Well in that case we should remove also more than 50 soldiers that have been killed in the war in Iraq from that list because they were killed in these places too. C'mon man think. They were killed suporting the war in Afghanistan. OK I agree about the 33 in Africa, Cuba and the Pacific but these guys should be listed as killed in the war in Afghanistan. So let the number be 300 killed american soldiers OK? Also stop removing the South Korean soldier listed killed. If you want to confirm these than go to yahoo, search for afghanistan timeline january 2003 wikipedia then check the date january 28th, you will see a report about the accidental killing of a south korean soldier in Afghanistan, even his name and rank. If you don't belive me then here are the information: In the Bagram Air Base barracks north of Kabul, Afghanistan, South Korean army major Lee Kyu-sang shot and killed Captain Kim Hyo-sung. The captain had refused an order to speak quietly on the telephone. The call involved the leasing of construction equipment with some Afghans. Kyu-sang, who said he didn't know the gun was loaded, was arrested. That was january 28th 2003.The link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan_timeline_January_2003#January_28.2C_2003

Please see Wikipedia:Verifiability. Using another wikipedia page doesn't count as a source either.

Motorfix 12:08, 14 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Listen Motorfix the information on the south-korean soldier must have been verified for it to be on a wikipedia page so stop removing him.Remove him if you ahve evidence that he didn't die.Also include the other 28 american soldiers killed in the war in Afghanistan that were killed elswhere in Asia. OK leave out those that were killed in Africa,the Philippines and Cuba but leave those that were killed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan and in the Arabian sea.

preceeding comment was made by User:89.216.229.112

I don't really see why the troops killed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan would be included, they're in a diffrent theater, are they not? I see some reasoning behind including deaths in Pakaistan and Uzbekistan as they are at least boardering Afghaninstan, and if the deaths in the Arabian Sea were on ships supporting the operations in Afghanistan I see a reasoning for that too. Why not include the larger number in the OEF article as opposed to here? Mike McGregor (Can) 14:50, 17 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

At least more than 50 american soldiers have been listed as killed in the war in Iraq, but were killed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, etc. If you don't want to list those 28 killed out of Afghanistan in the war in Afghanistan then don't list these in the war in Iraq. I mean c'mon guys. When the DoD identified them they specificly said if they were killed while supporting operation Enduring Freedom or Iraqi freedom. OK about those 33 killed in Cuba, Africa and the Philippines but these have to be included.

Maybe you guys should go to WP:ArbCom or ask for mediation to get this sorted out... on an aside, icasualties.org puts the number at 483 as of today... Mike McGregor (Can) 04:22, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

icasualties.org puts it at 483 because they include the 33 killed in Africa, Cuba and the Phillipines, I agree that they be counted as casualties in OEF Africa, OEF Phillipines and the 5 from Cuba don't be counted at all, but there is 28 killed in other arabic parts of Asia that should be counted as killed in the war in Afghanistan because they were supporting it in logistics and other things like 50 or so killed that are listed in the Iraq war but were not killed in Iraq.

Look...Read the title of the artical. It is not called casualties in Op enduring freedom, or Casualties In and around Afghanistan, or casualties in the Afghanistan war. It is coalition casualties in Afghanistan. Please read other conversations. We have already agreed on the source. Most of the coalition is only in Afghanistan! The source we are using as ref is http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf. Also, please cite a non wikipedia source for the South Korean...if you can. Motorfix 02:37, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Official casualties number

Please check [1] before updating this page.Copperchair 28 June 2005 20:48 (UTC)

No. We should use the DoD page [2] for a number of reasons. It is the official count, and lists those killed in combat, in accidents, etc. The CNN page does not, it only lists how many killed. There is a second section to the article detailing this that should be updated as well, in addition to just the numbers.
I have also noticed, Copperchair, that you keep reverting the number of Germans killed to 14. The number is 16, as two days ago, two Germans were killed in an accidental explosion[3], bringing their total dead to 16. I've noted this in the history section of this article. The CNN page HAS NOT been updated to account for the German deaths, but I think it will soon. I am making the changes again--trust me, I have the correct figures. We just need a little coordination here. PBP 4:52 PM, June 28, 2005


All right, I'll trust you on the WIA, but the DoD page does not specify the number of non-Americans killed, so there is no official number of those servicemen killed after June 22. Copperchair 29 June 2005 05:05 (UTC)

I'm going to try an avoid an edit war on this, so I'm going to list to you the German casualties. You can find them on the CNN site, if you look: March 6, 2002: 2 soldiers killed in accidental explosion. December 21, 2002: 7 soldiers killed in helicopter crash. May 29, 2003: 1 Soldier killed in mine blast. June 7, 2003: 4 soldiers killed by car bomb. That number is 14. On JUNE 26, 2 more Germans died in an accidental explosion [4], raising the toll to 16. THE CNN PAGE HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED. PBP, 29 June 2005.

The CNN page was updated today. You were right about German casualties. I have only edited the date now. I also updated (with the same figures) the Operation Enduring Freedom casualties section. Copperchair 30 June 2005 02:22 (UTC)

Today the CNN page counts 211 American soldiers dead (as of June 30, and the DoD page counts only 195 (as of July 1). I've updated it to the earlier, then. Copperchair 2 July 2005 04:47 (UTC)

Just to word of advice, Copperchair--don't update the date every time the CNN or the DOD site do. Just change the date when the casualty numbers change. It saves you the hassle of updating it every day. PBP 7 July 2005 6:51

Abbreviations

Please people (particularly American people), if you're going to type out where an American casualty was from, don't use abbreviations for U.S states. Do North Carolina, not N.C, or Alabama, not Ala. Most people from outside of the US wouldn't know what 'N.C' or 'S.D' or whatever stood for. Ebglider91 (talk) 03:04, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dispute

OK, I have put in for third party help on this: for about two months, there's been a constant edit war over these figures. Whenever a casualty is announced, I add it to the figures available. However, another editor only wants to put the figures up when they are listed on an external web page, such as the ones under "External Links". For instance, today, an American soldier was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. I added it to the current figures. However, this other editor will likely revert the page and say we should only add the death once the DoD casualty page has updated. Those pages take days to update, and when they do, they end up validating my figures anyway. I have tried to explain this, but to no avail.

Also, he does not seem to believe there have been 17 German deaths in Afghanistan, though I have provided evidence that there, in fact, have been 17 deaths. Any outside opinions/help on these sticking points would be appreciated.PBP 13:40, 27 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, that this is probably not the answer you prefer, but I think it would be best to get such running totals from an external source. That way they are more easily verifiable. In other words, I disagree with PBP. I have no comment on the German deaths, other than evidence is evidence. Maurreen (talk) 07:53, 31 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It possibly has been resolved, as the editor in question has not updated this site for days. What I tried to do with this page was to create something not unlike the one at Icasualties.org [5], but focusing on Afghanistan. Since Icasualties does not list coalition deaths in Afghanistan, I researched the hostile/non-hostile deaths myself. There is no external source that breaks up the American/coalition deaths in hostile/non-hostile categories, other than this page, so it is impossible to update that part using another source.PBP 14:09, 31 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]


Question of names

The April 22, 2006, incident included the names of just two of the four killed: (Bombardier Myles Mansell of the 5th British Columbia Field Regiment RCA, and Lt. William Turner of Land Force Western Area Headquarters). I removed this bit, as it didn't seem NPOV or fair to name only half of the men. I added an internal link -- [| here ] -- that includes the other names. I personally have no big problem listing all four, but I think we should be consistent. PLEASE PLEASE note that Wikipedia includes individual entries on many of these folks, so if we include the names we ought to verify whether there are any internal entries.--Thatnewguy 22:53, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Having the names, when available, allows to positively distinguish the incidents. Often the names are not available in the days following the incident but a week or two later. When the press reports a death on a certain date, and Governments report the same incident as occuring a day earlier, it can be thought to be 2 disctint incidents. Names help, and should be added as they become available. Hudicourt 17:29, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Numbers debate

The May 5 Italian attack may have "only" killed two and wounded four. I can't find a reference that says it was three, though I'm certainly aware that one of the wounded could have died later, creating the stated three-three number. This needs a cite. --Thatnewguy 23:07, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Aug. 21 entry originally said fewer soldiers were wounded. I found a citation. Please let's cite our sources and keep this straight. --Thatnewguy 23:07, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Rewrite

Ugh!! This artical leaves a bad taste...needs a rewrite. Motorfix 14:41, 6 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Check out Canadian Forces casualties in Afghanistan. Would that format (ie the table) be viable here? perhaps broken down by nationality (at least for the countries with higher casualties)? I think the problem is the haphazard way that some incidents are selected to be outlined in the article while many more are not. should we develop some guidelines regarding which incidents to include in the article? Mike McGregor (Can) 12:48, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Steve Reich (Army) redirects here — why?

Steve Reich (Army) redirects here, but I see no reference to him in the article. What's up with that? Omphaloscope talk 16:26, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Surprised nobody's included him here. Will do later, if nobody else gets around to it. Soren.harward 22:57, 11 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Request for Comment

Please provide assiatance to resolve the currenty edit war.Motorfix 16:26, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Could you both (all?) explaine what your criteria is for inclusion on this page and also let us know what your using for refrences? Mike McGregor (Can) 17:02, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hi Mike, I think that we should use this link from the Defense Department:Defense Department Casualty Page. The title of the artical is clear, and my intent is to include soldiers killed in Afghanistan, but not Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan and in the Arabian sea as suggested by others.

Lets put it this way: If we were counting soldiers killed in lets say France during World War 2, would you include soldiers killed over the English channel,in Holland, Belgium, and Italy? anyways, I think i'm okay as for as NPOV. cheers, Motorfix 18:55, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a particular source or sources that differentiates between casualties within Afghanistan and casualties occurring outside country? In short, what refrence is your count based on? Mike McGregor (Can) 07:05, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Mike, If you take a quick look through the discussions above, especially the "DISPUTE" discussion from 2005, there was a consensus to use the Defense Department list. There is only one user who keeps changing it. If you are asking what source the defense department uses to keep track, I have not the slightest clue.Motorfix 16:14, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
oh, ok. I was confused. I thought that part of your comment was a response from the other fellow (who never signs his comments) and the paragraph below was your entire comment... Now I gets it! Mike McGregor (Can) 18:24, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I came from the RFC. I agree that you should only state the deaths that happened in Afghanistan. After all, that is the title of the article. If the person who is editing in the other deaths is heart -set on including them (and I am assuming good faith), please mention the deaths in a separate statement, specifically declaring "x number of coalition casualties occurred in places other than Afghanistan including ____, ____, and ____.", or something to that effect. --Connor K. 21:20, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Another RfC - I agree with Connor K. above. Casualties outside of Afghanistan in an article whose title makes it clear is about casualties in Afghanistan are clearly redundant to the article. A statement to the effect of "For casualties of Operation: Enduring Freedom outside of Afghanistan, please see that article" or some such comment could be inserted to refer to the casualties outside of Afghanistan, though. Badbilltucker 21:59, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment Since we have a reliable source which tracks casualties within Afghanistan we should use that as the title and intent of the article is clear. That being said, I would also like to see coalition casualties occuring in transit to and from Afghanistan (such as the Spanish soldiers killed in the 2003 air-crash in Turkey), as well as in operations with a direct affect on the Taliban/al-Qaeda (such as Pakistani casualties) included in a seperate section or another article linked off this article. Mike McGregor (Can) 18:43, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Other Sources


http://www.jihadunspun.com/newsarchive/

http://www.jihadunspun.com/articles/08212002-Casualty.Report/casualty02.html


From October 21, 2001, Jihad Unspun staff and researchers began tracking military casualties in the US war on “terrorism” campaign in Afghanistan from approximately 40 international news sources daily. Although limited information on the extent of casualties suffered in Afghanistan by US and Coalition troops has appeared in main stream North American press, this has not been the case in other parts of the globe. This report documents our research.

Source material has been gathered from mainstream and uncensored news sources. Only those reports that could be verified in more than one source are included here. When casualties or kills were listed as “several soldiers wounded” they were excluded. As the counts come only from those that actually found there way into the press, we expect the actually figures to be as much as three times higher that those listed here.


What this report clearly shows is the censorship of the American media and the reports issued by the Pentagon. Rena Golden, the executive vice-president and general manager of CNN International said at a Newsworld conference is Asia that US news organizations “censored” their coverage of the US campaign in Afghanistan in order to be in step with public opinion in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks was shaped by the level of public support that existed for US action.

This report is not to be misconstrued as an official casualty count as it shows only figures reported in the 40 daily news sources Jihad Unspun monitors however it should be noted that the totals concluded here are significantly higher than those presented by the media within North America. Although we can not conclude with 100% accuracy the validity of any news item, this report begins to show a broader picture of casualties as reported throughout the globe and helps us to put into perspective the human cost of this war.

The US & Coalition Casualties Report has been independently audited by TREK Technologies Inc., a third party market research firm, to add further validity to this work.

It should be noted that this research began after Operation Enduring Freedom in the mountains of Afghanistan and therefore is not a complete accounting from the beginning of the Afghan invasion.

In our first limited distribution of this report a few weeks ago, we received many inquiries from American citizens who questioned how these deaths could be hidden from the public. As one General said “the first casualty of war is the truth” and casualties have been kept from the public in every war since WW1. How? Missing In Action. By the end of the Vietnam war there where some 70,000 MIA’s, with only a small portion of those accounted for to this day. We owe our understanding of the human cost of Vietnam to the families of soldiers who pressed for the declassification of documents and finally, years later, at least a portion of the truth was exposed. This is standard war time procedure that lawmakers consider to be in the best interest of national security.

This conclusion that can be drawn from this report is that the deaths of both US and Coalition soldiers are significantly higher than the public is being made aware of and therefore the willingness to continue the America war effort to new theatres such as Iraq is being orchestrated under false pretenses.

For more information contact: report@jihadunspun.net

http://www.jihadunspun.com/articles/08212002-Casualty.Report/casualty02.html

This is also a good source: http://icasualties.org/oef/ Hudicourt 17:33, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Steve Reich

I dont see the sense of redirecting to this page when the guy is not mentioned in the article. Panth 23:33, 3 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Plagiarism

I began working on a minor spelling mistake which led to the discovery that much of the material under "Specific Incidents" in 2008 has been directly cut-and-pasted from the US Military news releases. I don't believe this is appropriate or that it meets Wikipedia's standards. However, I a don't have hours to check the whole thing over right now. Perhaps the original contributor of these bits could correct this issue? --CokeBear (talk) 18:22, 17 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

German casualties

As Germany does not publish details about its casualties, foreign sources are even more unprecise than their domestic counterparts. That becomes obvious, too, when the death tolls of CNN and icasualties.org are compared to each other. However, the German MoD has recently confirmed in an interview (Source: See main article), that 29 Germans died in Afghanistan. Thus I'm going to reedit the entry concerning the Germans again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.95.195.157 (talk) 19:20, 2 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The official German casualties toll adds up to 26 fatalities and 75 wounded. Furthermore, three police officials working with the German troops were killed and four were wounded.

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/div/KSK-Bundeswehr-Afghanistan;art771,2582857 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.95.214.32 (talk) 14:28, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

26 fatalities and 80 wounded as of 15th of August according to the German Ministry of Defence. - User:Mitch818

Updates

There was no mention of Coalition casualties on the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) page, other than the info box, so a small section has been added halfway down. If anyone is updating numbers, could they update that page as well please? Thanks Chwyatt (talk) 08:47, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Update on US casualites

OK listen up the number given for the US military casualties here is not right. The figure doesn't include those killed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who were killed while supporting the mission in Afghanistan, before the Iraq invasion. So the number should be changed. icasualties.org states that 543 soldiers have been killed in Enduring Freedom up to date. The operation can be bropken down into four different operations. OEF - Afghanistan, OEF - Phillipines, OEF - Horn of Africa and OEF - Guantanamo bay. The Phillipines part of the operation has had 15 fatalities, the Africa part 17 and Guantanamo bay 5. So 543 - (15+17+5) = 516. Also the icasualties.org number doesn't include the civilian employee of the DoD that was killed by hostile fire. I have found out that the person in question was the contractor killed in Kuwait in January 2003. So the final number should be 517. Those that were killed before the Iraq invasion in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain were killed while supporting logistical operations in Afghanistan, just like they are now primaraly supporting operations in Iraq. So those deaths should be included! I will make the changes and please don't revert before giving a proper rational why does fatalities shouldn't be included. I have removed those killed in Africa, Cuba and the Far East because yest they don't belong on this list but those from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain do. If you want to stick to the DoD definition of "In and around Afghanistan" then it looks like that less have been killed during OEF in contrast to the actual number and this is missleading. Top Gun

Oh yes updating the number of US killed now from 517 to 518, another one died today, here is the reference http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/07/08/1_nato_soldier_killed_in_afghan_blast/.Top Gun

This subject has come up a few times on this page. I'd encourage you to familiarise yourself with the previous discussions if you haven't already and maybe contact the editors involved. I don't feel strongly either way, but the consensus seems to have settled on including only in-country deaths. Mike McGregor (Can) (talk) 17:47, 8 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Canadian Casualty Discrepancy

Someone has recently been editing down the Canadian casualty count by one. For instance, as of this note, DND, CBC, and iCasualties.org all agree that there have been 93 casualties, but once again someone has reduced it by one. Anyway, if someone can shed some light on this or if we can just agree to stick to the iCasualties.org number, that would be great. andrewpullin 02:27 22 August 2008 (UTC)

There was one death at a support base in the Persian Gulf which is usually included with most canadian media reports. My understanding is that this article only deals with fatalities within Afghanistan. That my be the source of the discrepancy. Mike McGregor (Can) (talk) 00:51, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Number of Danish casualties

According to the article (as of my addition of two casualties on 4. December) 20 Danish casualties in Afghanistan since 2002 are listed, 17 of these with names. Of these 10 has been in 2008. But according to the Danish national broadcast service (DR) about the same casualties it only makes 18 casualtes and only nine in 2008 (this article - sorry but it's only in Danish). So either the list here on Wikipedia is wrong (i hope we're not having some false entries) or DR is wrong. Does anybody have the possibility to review and confirm the list? --Hebster (talk) 20:19, 4 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

THC:DR is using the official defence fatality list and in doing so disregarding non-combat casualties such as an accident and a suicide. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.143.196.89 (talk) 00:14, 6 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If anybody should now which persons on the list is disregarded, shouldn't we then flag them in some sort (i.e. a note) so other people also will now why Wikipedia has a different listing? --Hebster (talk) 20:30, 7 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]


THC:I don't see the need, but if you insist there's the information you'll need:

Warrant officer Jens Mathias Petersen - died on the 13th March, 2008 due to over-exertion during training.

The unnamed sergeant, whom died on the 3th December, 2004 committed suicide.

Both is not listed on the official fatality list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.143.196.89 (talk) 01:27, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

seperate page for US Casaulties in Afghanistan??

I have just read throught the comments.. The section Details, the British, Canadians and Germans all have there own seperate pages which highlights the individuals killed in Afghanistan. Should not the Americans also have there own page at US Forces casualties in Afghanistan since 2001 ?? This would reduce the length of this article. It would allow substantial references to be included. Currently, there are only 15 notes but 554 cites (not included in the notes) .. COMMENTS? Jez t e C 23:50, 22 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Missing terrorist death count

I think in the list:

Coalition casualties · Afghan forces casualties · Civilian casualties · Aircraft losses

is certainly an entry missing for the number of deaths of the enemy. As far as I know NATO doesn't keep official records, but there are websites which try to estimate the number of terrorists killed based on news reports, like http://terroristdeathwatch.com/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.55.129.109 (talk) 01:36, 26 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Canadian soldier killed at the logistics base

Will somebody tell that guy, who is constantly changing his IP so it would seem numerous editors are doing the reverting, to stop undoing my edit. I am constantly reintroducing the Canadian soldier who died at a logistics base in another country in the Persian gulf, but he is constantly removing him from the count. The death at the logistic base is associated with the war itself, while the rest of the US deaths outside Afghanistan are associated with other wars and operations not just Afghanistan, there is a big difference. We don't include those other US deaths because they are involved in other operations and wars that have nothing to do with Afghanistan, but this Canadian soldier was directly involved and supporting the war in Afghanistan, the same as those US soldiers killed in Pakistan and Uzbekistan. The Canadian news press even includes him in their Afghan war tally when they state the number of dead soldiers. What this anonymous editor is doing is missleading and he is pushing his own POW. He is trying to implement US military casualties policy on US casualties on to Canadian casualties in contradiction to Canadian military casualties policy.BobaFett85 (talk) 15:09, 16 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

BobaFett, you only started editing this page 15 weeks ago on December 23, 2008. Just to give you some context, in case you think I just showed up after you, I've been contributing regularly to this Wikipedia article since September 18, 2006, about two and a half years ago.
Now here is your very first edit of this page on December 23, 2008: What were you doing? You were undoing contributions that I had made to this page on December 14, 2008 and earlier:
The death that took place outside of Afghanistan, and nowhere near Afghanistan, took place on July 4, 2008. Here is the edit that I made to add the information to this article on July 5, 2008.
On July 7, 2008, Mike McGregor, another long-time contributor to this page, made this edit in which he removed the out-of-country death that someone else had included from the total.
On July 20, 2008, he made another edit to remove the out-of-country death with the comment "the passage refers to in-country fatalities".
Here is an edit I made on August 6, 2008 in which I wrote not to include "deaths at distant logistics bases".
I could go on, but the point is two-fold: 1) you are the one that is undoing contributions that were made before you showed up, 2) this issue has been discussed before and was resolved until you decided to jump in and impose your way.
If you bother to read the very first discussion on this discussion page, started on September 5, 2006, you'll see that this issue was discussed and resolved by others in September 2006. As was pointed out then, this article is clearly titled "Coalition casualties in Afghanistan" - not "Coalition casualties in the war in Afghanistan" as you seem to think.
I am not arguing against the fact that "the death at the logistic base is associated with the war itself". But, to repeat, this article is not "Coalition casualties in the war in Afghanistan" but "Coalition casualties in Afghanistan".
You mention the Canadian news. I am a Canadian living in Canada - I don't believe that is your case. Most of the media news sources here will present the number of casualties as something like "The deaths bring the Canadian military's death toll to 111 since the Afghan mission began more than seven years ago."[6], or "Their deaths bring the Canadian military's death toll to 111 since the Afghan mission began in 2002."[7], or "There have been 111 Canadian soldiers, one diplomat and two aid workers who've died as part of the Afghanistan mission since 2002."[8]
Please notice that they are not saying 111 have died "in Afghanistan", but rather that 111 have died "during the mission" or "as part of the mission". In other words, they are being accurate in their wording and reporting. Then you have less rigorous news outlets that are completely inaccurate and will report things like "There have now been 111 Canadian soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan since 2002", which is quite wrong (only 93 have died under hostile circumstances, and unless you count IED deaths as "combat", only 33 have actually died in combat) and entirely misleading.
And the reason they are inaccurate is because lazy reporters or editors just grab a number off icasualties.org or some other source without bothering to check what it actually represents.
That is why it's important for this article to be accurate. Wikipedia should be a place that people can turn to for accurate information, where they can come to double-check on common misconceptions like this one that the mass media often reinforces and propagates.
70.49.123.146 (talk) 01:48, 18 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hehehe, listen buddy don't try being all high and mighty on me, I have been editing under the username BobaFett85 since late December, BUT have been editing here on Wikipedia under numereous other usernames since July 2006, thus I have been contributing to Wikipedia about two months longer than you. I change my Username every six months or so because I get bored with the old one. And one more thing, if you are going to try and trick me try a little bit better. The sources you gave, stating 111 killed in support of the operation, are out of date, that number was given before Canadian ISAF soldier Marc Diab was killed on March 8. Here is a source for that and the number 112 [9]. What? You fought that if I was a newbie to Wikipedia I wouldn't check it and just belive you. By the way it's from a Canadian news source, think it's called www.canada.com. Can't get more Canadian than that. But of course you knew all this since you are Canadian right? If anything I have learned in my two and a half years of working on Wikipedia how to deal with POV pushers, and that is you. I have had edit wars with at least a dozen POV pushers who tried to push their own agendas, I won every last one of those debates.

But thanks for one thing, you pointed out a serious problem with this article. You said: I am not arguing against the fact that "the death at the logistic base is associated with the war itself". But, to repeat, this article is not "Coalition casualties in the war in Afghanistan" but "Coalition casualties in Afghanistan". Maybe that is the main problem here, people who come here and read this article are coming to see the numbers of Coalition soldiers who died in support of the war, not just within the country itself. So I think actualy I will change the name of the article in a few days if nobody objects because as this article is now it is highly missleading. Also you say this article includes only those who died within Afghanistan itself, then why are you including US deaths in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, oh that's right because the DoD says they died in support of operations in Afghanistan. And I think you yourself said you agreed that that guy at the logistics base died in support of operations in Afghanistan. I have nothing further to say. Please stop reverting and making a big fuss and an edit war over this.BobaFett85 (talk) 03:37, 18 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting to see your multiple edits of this discussion under both your latest BobaFett account and anonymously, (which you did as well in editing the main article.) I can see why you anonymously edited out this part in particular.
You wrote: "I have had edit wars ... I won every last one of those debates". I think you're missing the whole point of the discussion page. Perhaps you could read Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines
You wrote: "So I think actualy I will change the name of the article in a few days if nobody objects". Actually, I do object.
The canada.com article you referenced was exactly an example of shoddy and inaccurate reporting, and the reason why I think we should not bury details here. An example of more accurate wording is "Diab, a member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons based in Petawawa, Ont., is the 112th Canadian soldier to die during the Afghan mission since 2002.[10] It gives the casualty figure without saying that 112 soldiers died in Afghanistan.
As for including US deaths in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, the only reason for that is simply because the US military does not provide casualty figures for Afghanistan alone.
70.49.123.146 (talk) 05:35, 18 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I did that edit anonymously only because I didn't want to bother signing in, but you know what I realy don't care, do what you want, I am starting a whole new article on Coalition deaths linked to the war itself and not just within the borders of the country, and that will be the article that will be used as a reference for the number of Coalition soldiers killed in the infobox of the conflict.BobaFett85 (talk) 05:42, 18 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]