boots on the ground = casualties#2

[robert99]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/09052016
An American soldier was killed in a non-combat incident in Iraq, the Pentagon said, less than a week after a US Navy Seal died in fighting near the Islamic State’s stronghold of Mosul.

The US Department of Defense said Sunday that 1st Lt. David Bauders, 25, died on Friday at the Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq's Anbar Province. He was part of the Washington National Guard's 176th Engineer Company.

The Pentagon said that the circumstances of Bauders' death remain unclear and are under investigation.

see also Washington National Guard soldier killed in Iraq in 'non-combat incident'
and DoD Identifies Army Casualty > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > News Release View

 

[robert99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/us/politics/combat-missions-obama-questions-answers.html

"The White House does semantic cartwheels to say neither mission [Iraq and Afghanistan] is combat. In 2014, when Mr. Obama first sent troops back into Iraq, he was unequivocal in his description of their mission. “I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.” The White House has stuck to the notion that the troops are not in combat. Pentagon officials roll their eyes at such denial, and senior officials — including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — have publicly called it combat.

How many troops do we have in each country?

The Pentagon will not say exactly. Military officials say there are roughly 5,000 troops in Iraq and 11,000 in Afghanistan. At the heights of those conflicts a decade ago, the United States had more than 150,000 troops in Iraq and 100,000 in Afghanistan.