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U.S. soldier walks past a bullet-riddled wall after an attack at
the compound of the governor of Parwan province August 14, 2011.Taliban
suicide bombers and gunmen killed at least 19 people during an attack
on a governor's compound in central Afghanistan on Sunday, with
gun battles and several blasts heard before the assault was put
down. (REUTERS/Omar Sobhani) August 14, 2011

Sgt.
Maj. Joseph Singerhouse, 40, left, of Prairie Farm Wisc., with the
4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell,
Ky., pulls down the photo of Spc. Christian Romig, from the memorial
of soldiers killed in action during the brigade's deployment, as
he packs up with the help of Sgt. Darci Carroll, 30, of Fort Wayne,
Ind., following a Transfer of Authority ceremony Sunday, Aug. 7,
2011 at Forward Operating Base Sharana in Paktika province, Afghanistan.
The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division is returning
home after a year in Afghanistan as the last brigade to deploy as
part of President Obama's 30,000 troop surge. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
August 7, 2011

U.S.
occupation soldiers attached to the Golden Lions forces patrol a
street in the city of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad July 20,
2011. (REUTERS/Saad Shalash) July 29, 2011

Sgt.
Eric Scharf, 27, of Temecula, Calif., with the U.S. Army's 3rd Platoon,
Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion 27th Infantry Regiment based in Hawaii,
does a radio check with the watchtowers Sunday, July 10, 2011 at
Observation Point Mustang, elevation 6,000 feet, in Kunar province,
Afghanistan. (AP Photo/David Goldman) July 18, 2011

Steve
Whiteman (L), U.S. Marines Staff Sergeant of the Weapons Company,
1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, walks across a field during a joint
patrol with Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers near the Patrol
Base Karma in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, July 2, 2011.
REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) July 3, 2011

Iraq
war veteran Mike Prysner (L-R), Rosanna Cambron, whose son Arturo
is serving in Iraq, and Dede Millier, whose nephew was killed in
Iraq - members of Military Families Speak Out - react after watching
U.S. President Barack Obama speak on television, in Long Beach,
California June 22, 2011. Obama announced on Wednesday a plan to
continue the war in Afghanistan. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson ) June
23, 2011

Injured
Lance Cpl David Richvaslky, from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines sits
in a medevac helicopter from the US Army's Task Force Lift 'Dust
Off', Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after suffering shrapnel
wounds to his head, outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern
Afghanistan, Sunday, June 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
June 12, 2011

U.S.
Army flight medic Spc. Daniel Miller, right, tends to injured United
States Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Lynch onboard a medevac helicopter
from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift 'Dust Off,' Charlie Company
1-214 Aviation Regiment en route to a hospital in the Helmand Province
of southern Afghanistan, Sunday, June 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
June 5, 2011

Marine Cpl. Mathew Bowman, center, who was injured serving in Afghanistan,
visits Arlington National Cemetery with his wife Paige Bowman, as
American flags are placed on each headstone in preparation for Memorial
Day, in Arlington, Va., Thursday, May 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn
Martin) May 26, 2011

United States Marines carry colleague LCPL Jeremy Hanley of Massachusetts,
who was wounded in an insurgent attack to a waiting medevac helicopter
from the US Army's Task Force Lift 'Dust Off', Charlie Company 1-214
Aviation Regiment at a 'hot' landing zone under fire north of Sangin,
in the volatile Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, Sunday,
May 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) May 15, 2011

An honor guard carries the casket of Army Cpl. Justin Ross, of Green
Bay, Wis., who was killed in Afghanistan, Wednesday, April 20, 211,
at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Ross died March
26 after he was shot in Afghanistan's Helmand province. He was posthumously
promoted to corporal. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) April 23, 2011

U.S. Army chief crew SPC Torrell Bryant from "Dustoff"
team, C Company, 1-214 Aviation Regiment, 101st Combat Aviation
Brigade makes notes as the U.S Marine CPL Hayden Hunt from 2/8 Golf
Company with a gunshot wound in the arm due a battle against Taliban
insurgents is medevaced aboard a helicopter in Helmand province,
Afghanistan, April 8, 2011. (REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov) April 14, 2011

The images are repulsive. A group of US soldiers in Afghanistan
killed innocent civilians and then posed with their bodies as if
they were hunting trophies. DER SPIEGEL and other global media published
three the photos, however few in the U.S. have seen them. An investigation
by Der Spiegel has unearthed approximately 4,000 photos and videos
taken by the men. The magazine, which is planning to publish only
three images, said that in addition to the crimes the men were on
trial for there are "also entire collections of pictures of
other victims that some of the defendants were keeping". (Photos: Der Spiegel) March 27, 2011

Fran and Tom Fahey mourn over a casket containing the body of
their nephew Army Spc. David Fahey Jr. at a cemetery in Putnam Valley,
N.Y., Thursday, March 10, 2011. David Fahey was killed in Afghanistan
by injuries sustained from an IED. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) March 12,
2011

An emblem of a sniper unit from the U.S. Marines from the First
Battalion Eighth Marines Alpha Company marks the door of a compound,
alongside a tally of kills (top left) made by each of the sniper
teams, at the Musa Qala District Center in southern Afghanistan's
Helmand province, February 27, 2011. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) February
27, 2011

A US soldier aims his machine gun at Afghan citizenswhile on
patrol in the center of Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday,
Feb. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) February 14, 2011

Bomb-sniffing Labrador, Eli, licks Brady Rusk, 12, during an
adoption ceremony at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Thursday,
Feb. 3, 2011. Rusk brother, U.S. Marine Pfc. Colton W. Rusk, was
Elis handler. Eli, a bomb-sniffing Labrador whose human handler
was killed in combat has new owners the family of the fallen
U.S. Marine who the dog loyally obeyed in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/
San Antonio Express-News, Jerry Lara) February 6, 2011

A United States Marine shouts an order as he and U.S. Army medic
Sgt. Joseph Campbell, second left, from Task Force Shadow 'Dust
Off', Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, prepare to load a
wounded Afghan onto their medevac helicopter near Marjah in the
volatile Helmand Province, Southern Afghanistan, Tuesday, Jan. 18,
2011. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) January 20, 2011

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) occupation troops
in Afghanistan as of January 2011.. US commanders are under pressure
to show clear progress in Afghanistan in 2011 and successfully counter
any upswing in Taliban attacks in the spring, or else face fresh
public doubts about the course of the war. (AFP/Graphic/Gal) January
9, 2011

German Bundeswehr military police play foosball next to a christmas
tree, as U.S. military police comrades watch, at the army camp in
Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, December 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Fabrizio
Bensch) December 07, 2010

An Army carry team carries the transfer case containing the
remains of Army Pvt. Devon J. Harris of Mesquite, Texas, upon arrival
at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Jose
Luis Magana) November 30, 2010

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Reed Wilbraham, left, of Philadelphia,
Pa., from First Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne
Division helps an Afghan Army soldier during a patrol in Panjwai
district, Afghanistan's Kandahar province, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) November 23, 2010

Protestors hold signs as they march to Southern Methodist University
where a ground- breaking ceremony was being held for the George
W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010.
(AP Photo/Mike Fuentes) November 17, 2010

U.S. Army medic Sgt. Scott Lang treats U.S. Army Spc. Joseph
Nelson who is wounded by an explosion during a Medevac flight in
southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 4, 2010. Picture
taken November 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Peter Andrews) November 06, 2010

The transfer case containing the remains of Army Spc. Pedro
A. Maldonado of Houston, Texas, sits at the end of the loader ramp
upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) November 01, 2010

Chantelle Bateman, a Marine who worked as an aviation supply
specialist in Iraq, is now a regional coordinator for Iraq Veterans
Against the War, outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington,
in this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010. The wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq are taking a backseat to jobs and the economy as political
issues in the midterm elections. (AP Photo/Josh Lederman, Medill
News Service) October 29, 2010

Marines from the 1st Battalion 8th Marines Alpha Company wake
up and get out of sleeping bags to start the day at their remote
outpost of Kunjak in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, October
28, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) October 29, 2010

Canadian soldiers from the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction
Team relax and swim in Camp Nathan Smith, an ISAF military base
in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo
Abd) October 21, 2010

U.S. medics unload from a helicopter an Afghan National Army
soldier whose leg was blown off by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan's
Kandahar province, October 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)
October 15, 2010

A U.S. Army soldier from Alpha Company, 1-22 Infantry Battalion
takes up a checkpoint along a road in Kandahar province October
10, 2010 while curious children watch. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro)
October 12, 2010

A U.S. flight medic of the 101st Airborne Division's Task Force
Shadow "Dustoff" medevac team examines a report on an
unconscious fellow U.S. serviceman during a night time emergency
airlift in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province October 6, 2010.
(REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) October 7, 2010

A member of the "Dustoff" medevac team from 101st
Airborne Division, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Shadow
monitors the condition of Afghan soldiers wounded in a roadside
bomb attack in Kandahar province, Afghanistan September 24, 2010.
(REUTERS/Erik de Castro) September 26, 2010

Members of a U.S. military medic team carry a U.S. soldier who
was injured from a roadside bomb blast onto an ambulance after evacuated
aboard a "Dustoff" medevac helicopter from 101st Airborne
Division, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Shadow in Kandahar,
September 18, 2010. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro) September 19, 2010

A U.S. army soldier stands guard near the scene of an attack
on a fuel tanker in Ali Abad district of Kunduz province, north
of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2010. The tanker was part
of a NATO supply convoy. (AP Photo/Fulad Hamdard) September 3, 2010

A Marine carry team carries a transfer case, containing the
remains of Lance Cpl. Cody S. Childers, 19, of Chesapeake, Va.,
into a transfer vehicle, Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010, after its arrival
at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense,
Childers, died Aug. 20 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while supporting
combat operations. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) August 22,
2010

U.S. Army medic SSgt Rahkeem Francis with Charlie Company, 6-101
Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, walks past a smoke
grenade after landing in a medevac helicopter to pick up a wounded
Marine near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province, August 19, 2010.
(REUTERS/Bob Strong) August 19, 2010

Marine Corps Color guard folds the flag above the casket of
Lance Cpl. Shane R. Martin, 23, of Spring, Texas during burial services
at Houston National Cemetery Monday, Aug. 9, 2010, in Houston. Martin
died Thursday in the Helmand province of Afghanistan and was assigned
to the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division,
I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. Lance Cpl.
Martin is survived by his wife Lauren who he married on July 4,
2008 (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson) August 11, 2010

U.S. soldiers and civilians have fun dancing salsa on Kandahar
Airfield, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 31, 2010. Kandahar Airfield
is the largest military base in southern Afghanistan and has a population
by some estimates of at least 20,000 soldiers and civilians, and
has many of the same services of a small American city, with nightclubs,
restaurants, gyms, and other entertainment, even as Afghans in the
city suffer from a lack of basic necessitites (AP Photo/Rodrigo
Abd) August 04, 2010

In this July 24, 2010 file photo, an Army carry team carries
a transfer case containing the remains of 1st Lt. Michael L. Runyan
at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense,
Runyan, 24, of Newark, Ohio, died July 21 in Balad, Iraq of injuries
sustained when insurgents attacked his convoy vehicle with an improvised
explosive device in Muqdadiyah, Iraq. July was Iraq's deadliest
month in more than two years, according to new official figures
that show that 535 people were killed last month, the highest since
May 2008 when 563 died. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) August 02, 2010

A U.S. Army soldier crosses an irrigated field during a patrol
by the 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne
Division near COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar,
Afghanistan, Friday, July 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) July
20, 2010

US Army soldiers have lunch at Wilson Forward Operating Base,
Kandahar, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo
Abd) July 18, 2010

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) protest outside
the gates of Ft. Hood in Killeen on July 9, 2010. IVAW is holding
their national convention in Austin this weekend, along with an
event on Saturday night at Under The Hood coffee house in Killeen.
(Killeen Daily Herald) July 10, 2010

United States army medic Spec. Andrew Madison from Bravo Company,
2nd Battalion of the 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd
Airborne, walks through an orchard on a patrol near the village
of Charbagh in the volatile Arghandab Valley, outside Kandahar City,
Monday, July 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) July 6, 2010

Containers of U.S. military hazardous waste are seen at a disposal
facility at al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq on Monday, June 28,
2010. The U.S. military is removing tens of millions of pounds of
hazardous waste accumulated during seven years of war amid concerns
about America's environmental legacy in Iraq, officials said. Brig.
Gen. Kendall Cox said the military spent $55 million last year to
build two treatment centers for waste and has numerous collection
centers around the country as part of a U.S. effort to draw down
forces ahead of an Aug. 31, 2010 deadline. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
June 29, 2010

Containers of U.S. military hazardous waste are seen at a disposal
facility at al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq on Monday, June 28,
2010. The U.S. military is removing tens of millions of pounds of
hazardous waste accumulated during seven years of war amid concerns
about America's environmental legacy in Iraq, officials said. Brig.
Gen. Kendall Cox said the military spent $55 million last year to
build two treatment centers for waste and has numerous collection
centers around the country as part of a U.S. effort to draw down
forces ahead of an Aug. 31, 2010 deadline. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
June 29, 2010

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Bradley Robbins from Charlie Co. Sixth
Battalion, 101st Airborne Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Shadow
prepares to administer drugs to a wounded American soldier while
enroute to the hospital June 24, 2010 near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
(Justin Sullivan, Getty Images) June 25, 2010

U.S. Army First Sergeant Todd Sullivan (R) with C Troop 1-71
CAV walks among Afghans during a patrol in the village of Gorgan
in Dand district, south of Kandahar, June 20, 2010. (REUTERS/Denis
Sinyakov ) June 20, 2010

A Navy carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains
of Seaman William F. Ortega Sunday, June 20, 2010 at Dover Air Force
Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Ortega, 23, of
Miami, died June 18 in Helmand province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained
from an improvised explosive device. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) June
20, 2010

The family of Brendan Neenan confort each other during a funeral
service for the U.S. Army soldier at St. Johns Evangelist Catholic
Church on Wednesday, June 16, 2010. Neenan was killed by an improvised
explosive device on June 7, while in Afghanistan as part of Operation
Enduring Disaster. (AP Photo/The Dothan Eagle, Jay Hare) June 18,
2010

U.S. and British troops watch the World Cup soccer match from
South Africa between the U.S. and England in Camp Bastion, Helmand
Province, Afghanistan June 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Corporal Gary Kendall
RLC) June 13, 2010

An Army carry team carries a transfer case with the unidentified
remains of an Army soldier off of a C-17 Air Force transport airplane
during a casualty return at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Wednesday,
June 9, 2010. The military was not able to positively identify in
the field, the remains of First Sgt. Richard N. Barton of Roxie,
Miss.; Spc. Blaine E. Redding of Plattsmouth, Neb.; and Spc Matthew
R. Catlett of Houston, Texas. The Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operation
Center at Dover Air Force Base will identify the remains. The Department
of Defense announced the death of the soldiers who were supporting
Operation Enduring Disaster in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
June 10, 2010

A medic with the U.S. Army comforts an injured Canadian soldier
with the 1st RCR Battle Group, The Royal Canadian Regiment, after
landing for his medical evacuation outside Salavat, in the Panjwayi
district, southwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan, Monday, June 7, 2010.
The Canadian soldier was injured from an IED during a patrol earlier.
(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) June 7, 2010

A jogger runs past crosses along the Santa Monica beach at the
Arlington West War memorial during the Memorial Day observance in
Santa Monica, Calif. on Monday May 31,2010. The crosses represent
U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Richard
Vogel) June 2, 2010

Anita Dixon, of Wichita, Kan., whose son Army Sgt. Evan Parker
was killed while serving in Iraq in 2005, kisses the graves in section
60, where many of the casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried,
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) May 29, 2010

U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines rest during a patrol
in Marjah district, Helmand province Afghanistan, May 21, 2010.
(REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih) May 22, 2010

In this May 8, 2010 photo, a tattoo on the back of U.S. Army
Sgt. James Wilkes of Rochester, N.Y., is seen through his torn shirt
after a foot patrol with 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion,
1st Infantry Regiment, of the 5th Styker Brigade in Afghanistan's
Kandahar province. The full tattoo reads, 'Sacrifice. Without fear
there is no courage.' (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) May 15, 2010

A U.S. soldier with a prosthetic limb uses his mobile phone
to film a ceremony for U.S. soldiers who sustained combat injuries
in Iraq at Al Faw Palace in U.S. so-called Camp "Victory"
in Baghdad May 9, 2010 more than 8 years after the invasion of Iraq
began. (REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen) May 11, 2010

A U.S. Army soldier with 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne Division stands by his machinegun
on an outpost atop a mountain overlooking the Arghandab valley in
Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Yannis
Behrakis) May 8, 2010

A wounded U.S. soldier is carried off of a C-17 transport airplane
to an ambulance at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, April 20,
2010. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) April 23, 2010

This picture taken on March 20 shows US Sergeant Paul Williams
posing to show his tattoos at the entrance to a bunker in Marjah,
Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. For many Marines, frescoes
on skin narrate their lives as soldiers and as men, exorcise their
fears, honour their comrades and proclaim their "loves".
(AFP/Mauricio Lima) April 17, 2010


This picture Corporal Lorenzo Robles posing to show his chest
tattoo at a base in Marjah in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.
For many Marines, frescoes on skin narrate their lives as soldiers
and as men, exorcise their fears, honour their comrades and proclaim
their loves. (AFP/File/Mauricio Lima) April 17, 2010


A United States Army soldier with 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade
Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, pulls on his boots before
heading out to help unload supply trucks, Monday, April 5, 2010,
at a combat outpost in the Arghandab Valley of Kandahar province
in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) April 10, 2010

In an echo of pre-Christian rituals, United States Army Capt.
Ryan Kenny, of Billings, Mont., left, with the 82nd Airborne Division,
holds a light over the text for Chaplain William Kneemiller, center,
as he reads while Staff Sgt. Richard Webb, of Donna, Texas prepares
to light the Easter candle during the Lighting of the Easter Vigil
fire service of light, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2010 at at a forward operating
base in the Arghandab Valley of Kandahar province in Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) April 3, 2010

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with troops at Bagram Air
Base in Kabul, March 28, 2010. Obama arrived unannounced in Afghanistan
on Sunday, his first visit to the war zone that could define his
presidency since his election as U.S. commander-in-chief. (REUTERS/Jim
Young) March 29, 2010

A U.S. Marine carries a cargo net to a helicopter in Marjah,
Afghanistan, which landed at a poppy field outside their base In
this photo taken on Wednesday, March 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)
March 25, 2010

Thousands of protesters march through Washington to protest
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the seventh anniversary of the
invasion of Iraq, on Saturday, March 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn
Martin) March 21, 2010

In this image taken Monday, March 15, 2010, in Marjah, marines
of the First Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment build a barrier around
their base. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic) March 18, 2010

Army Chaplain Carl Subler (L) prays with soldiers before a military
operation on March 14, 2010 at Howz-e-Madad in Kandahar province,
Afghanistan. He accompanied soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 1st
Infantry Regiment on an offensive operation against Taliban in the
area. (Getty) March 15, 2010

A soldier with Army National Guard 162 Engineer Company attached
with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion of U.S. Marine Corps rests under
a makeshift cover after returning from a route clearance mission
at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, March
10, 2010. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) March 12, 2010

U.S. Army Spc. Ben McMahon, left, 24, from College Station,
Texas, and Spc. Juan Esparza, right, 21, from Dallas, Texas, watch
a movie on a laptop computer while listening to radio traffic in
their armored vehicle in Mosul, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday,
March 7, 2010. The soldiers, from B Troop, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry
Regiment , are part of the U.S. quick-reaction force for Mosul on
standby to respond if Iraq asks for their help during Sunday's national
election. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) March 9, 2010

Specialist Richard Gay of the Army National Guard 162nd Engineering
Company attached to the U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion
blows air on a bullet belt before going for a route clearance mission
at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, March
5, 2010. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) March 5, 2010

U.S. Marines practise boxing at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand
province, southern Afghanistan, March 3, 2010. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov)
March 3, 2010

Members of the Marine Corps carry the casket of Marine Pfc.
Kyle J. Coutu from St. Teresa of the Child Church in Pawtucket,
R.I., following funeral services, Friday, Feb. 26, 2010. Coutu was
killed last week supporting combat operations in the Helmand province
of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Stew Milne) March 1, 2010

U.S Army soldiers from Delta Company, 4th Brigade combat team,
2-508, 82nd parachute infantry Regiment, take retina scans of Afghan
citizens during a patrol in the Arghandab valley, Kandahar province,
southern Afghanistan, February 24, 2010. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner) February
26, 2010

U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment rest in
an Afghan's home during a patrol in Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand
province on Wednesday Feb. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
February 24, 2010

U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment rest in
a compound after a battle with the Taliban in Marjah in Afghanistan's
Helmand province on Saturday Feb. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
February 20, 2010

A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines
breaks the door of a house to search for weapons during an operation
in the town of Marjah, February 16, 2010. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)
February 17, 2010

U.S. Marines from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines
fires mortars in the town of Marjah in Nad Ali district of Helmand
province February 14, 2010. A U.S. Marine company position came
under intense fire from all sides on Sunday, at a building where
an Afghan flag had been raised to mark progress in a NATO offensive
against a Taliban stronghold. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) February
14, 2010

A U.S. army medic rushes to carry a U.S. Marine wounded in a
RPG attack in Marjah on Saturday..
Brennan Linsley/AP) February 13, 2010

Tom Davis holds his daughter Lylli with two of his other children
Isaiah, far left, and Elli looking on in the kitchen of the Davis
home Thursday, Feb. 12, 2010, in Fremont, Ind. He was only a week
into his second tour in Iraq in 2006 when a bomb exploded underneath
the Humvee he was riding in, blasting the vehicle two stories into
the air and leaving him with a broken back and a leg injured beyond
repair.
(AP Photo/Joe Raymond) February 12, 2010

A U.S. Marine throws a football at Delaram base in Nimroz province,
southern Afghanistan January 24, 2010. (REUTERS/Marko Djurica) January
24, 2010

Local children look up at a soldier of 293rd Military Police
Company out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, U.S.during a patrol in Kandahar
City, southern Afghanistan Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Kirsty
Wigglesworth) January 17, 2010

U.S. soldiers toast during the lunch meal on Christmas day at
the Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, Dec. 25, 2009.
(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) December 26, 2009

Spc. James Lollis, right, who was on his way to the gym, and
an unidentified soldier from the 2nd Battalion 12th Infantry take
cover as incoming fire hits inside Command Outpost Michigan at the
Pech River Valley in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, Saturday, Dec.
19, 2009. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) December 19, 2009

Sgt Donald A Grahl from Sanger TX, of 1st Battalion 82th Field
Artillery Regiment prepares the turkeys for the thanksgiving meal
at JSS WarEagle, Adahmiyah neighborhood, northeastern Baghdad, Iraq,
on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009. U.S. Soldiers in Iraq celebrate thanksgiving
holiday this year away from their families for the seventh year
in a row. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) November 28, 2009

A U.S. Army soldier with the Alpha Troop 3-71 Cavalry Squadron
returns to the vehicles after a dismounted patrol near the town
of Baraki Barak, Logar province, Afghanistan, Monday, Nov. 23, 2009.
(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) November 23, 2009

U.S. Army soldier Ryan Branklel of 3/509 infantry 4BDE25ID Task
Force Geronimo fires his weapon during a training session at FOB
Tillman, Afghanistan, November 11, 2009 (REUTERS/Bruno Domingos)
November 19, 2009

Maria Rodriguez, left, and Cindy Wilson, right, cry during a
reunion with their husbands at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, Tuesday,
Nov. 10, 2009 after 295 soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division returned
after another year from Iraq. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) November 12,
2009

US Army Spc. Eric Marquez, an infantryman from El Paso, Texas,
digs at a suspected cache site as an Iraqi soldier looks on during
a combined caches sweep in northwestern Baghdad (REUTERS/U.S Army/Sgt.
Mark Burrell) November 02, 2009

An Army carry team carries the transfer case containing the
remains of Army Pfc. Kimble A. Han, of Lehi, Utah, during dignified
transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, Del., on Sunday, Oct.
25, 2009. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) October 25, 2009

A U.S. soldier offers candy to a boy during a "patrol"
in Kerbala, October 14, 2009. (REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed) October
16, 2009

U.S. marines take up positions during an operation to clear
the area of Taliban insurgents in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan,
October 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih) October 9, 2009

Newly-arrived troops of the US Army load their bags onto a truck
at Kandahar military base on October 3. Eight foreign soldiers and
two Afghan troops were killed in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan,
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Sunday.
(AFP/Romeo Gacad) October 4, 2009

Carlos Arredondo of Boston, carries his son's boots during the
4th Annual 'A Time of Remembrance,' an event to honor the sacrifices
of the fallen and their families on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol
in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009. Arredondo's son, USMC Lance
Cpl. Alex Arredondo, died at 20 in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004. (AP Photo/Pablo
Martinez Monsivais) September 26, 2009

An Afghan girl gets her nails painted by a female U.S. soldier
who joined German ISAF soldiers during a long-term patrol in Yaftal
e Sofla, in the mountainous region of Feyzabad, east of Kunduz,
Afghanistan, early morning Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009.
(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) September 16, 2009

A soldier attached to U.S Marine Delta Company of 2nd Light
Armored Recon Battalion patrols a village near the town of Khan
Neshin in Rig district of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan
September 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic ) September 7, 2009

A carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains
of Marine Lance Cpl. David R. Hall of Elyria, Ohio, Tuesday, Sept.
2, 2009 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department
of Defense, Hall died while supporting combat operations in Helmand
province, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) September 3, 2009

U.S. Marines from Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment,
2nd MEB, 3rd MEF, play a game of basketball using a tire mounted
on a wall at their combat outpost in the village of Dahaneh Sunday,
Aug. 23, 2009, in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Julie
Jacobson) August 24, 2009

A U.S. Marine from Training Team 2-8 and an Afghan National
Army (ANA) soldier search abandoned houses during a night patrol
in the village of Totnow, Afghanistan's Kunar province, late August
16, 2009. (REUTERS/Oleg Popov) August 19, 2009

A U.S. soldier of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain
Warrior is reflected in a mirror during a patrol at a polling station
near Honaker Miracle camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province August
15, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria) August 16, 2009

A U.S. soldier of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain
Warrior guards a group of men arrested on suspicion of being Taliban
militia members in Combat Main camp at the Pesh valley in Kunar
Province August 14, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria) August 14, 2009

Marines with Golf Company, 2nd MEB, play a game of poker during
the night hours at combat outpost ANP Hill Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009,
near the city of Now Zad in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) August 10, 2009


U.S. soldier PV2 Robert Rondash of Alpha company 2-12 Infantry
4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior stands on a bridge during a
check point in Manugay village at the Pech Valley in Kunar Province
August 8, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria) August 10, 2009

In this July 2007 file photograph taken in Orlando, Fla., provided
by Victor Agosto, U.S. Army Spc. Victor Agosto is shown while on
leave from a 13-month tour in Iraq. Agosto a Fort Hood soldier was
sentenced to a military jail for 30 days for refusing to deploy
to Afghanistan. Agosto, pleaded guilty and faces up to 30 days in
jail and an other-than-honorable discharge. Agosto didn't flee as
other objectors have, but stayed on base. (AP Photo/ Victor Agosto)
August 7, 2009

Three U.S. Army soldiers of Dagger Company, 2-12 Infantry, 4th
Brigade rest in the shade at Michigan Base before heading out on
a patrol in the Pesh Valley in Afghanistan's Kunar Province August
1, 2009. (REUTERS/Tim Wimborne) August 1, 2009

U.S. soldier stands guard during a reopening ceremony of a bridge
connecting Shula and Ghazaliya districts in Baghdad July 28, 2009.
(REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen) July 28, 2009
In this June 30, 2009 file photo, U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Chase,
24, from Houston, Texas of C Co., 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment,
cleans his weapon at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba,
Iraq. An Iraqi military commander on Monday July 20, 2009 compared
new restrictions on the U.S. military to 'house arrest,' saying
American combat troops cannot patrol as freely as they did before
pulling out of cities on June 30. (AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo) July
23, 2009

Members of Alpha Company, 2-12 Infantry, 4th Brigade of NATO's
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) shield themselves
from dust before boarding a helicopter at Forward Operating Base
Blessing in Kunar Province, to support Chosen Company in the Watapor
Valley July 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Tim Wimborne) July 17, 2009

US Marines cross a make shift bridge in the Garmsir district
of Helmand Province as they pressed a major assault in the South
of Afghanistan (AFP/Manpreet Romana) July 12, 2009

US soldiers cut a cake in celebration of the 4th of July, the
US Independence Day in Afghanistan. A new US military offensive
launched in Afghanistan's south this week. (AFP/Massoud Hossaini)
July 7, 2009

A girl peers from her front gate as a U.S. Army soldier from
A Co., 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment patrols in western Mosul,
Tuesday, June 9, 2009. (AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo) June 13, 2009

An Army carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains
of Pvt. Thomas Lee III, Saturday, May 30, 2009 at Dover Air Force
Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Lee, of Dalton,
Ga., was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade in Mosul, Iraq while
supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. (AP Photo/ Steve Ruark) May
31, 2009

In this undated photo released by the Hutchison family, Maj.
Steven Hutchison, center, is seen in Afghanistan with colleagues.
Hutchison, of Scottsdale, Arizona, 60-year-old Vietnam War veteran
killed when a bomb exploded near his truck outside Al Farr, Iraq
has become the oldest Army soldier to die in that conflict. (AP
Photo/Hutchison family via The Arizona Republic) May 16, 2009

US soldiers, seen here in April 2009, walk in front of the US
national flag at ISAF's Camp Bostick in Naray, in Afghanistan. The
US military rejected Monday a media report that its troops tried
to spread Christianity among Afghans, saying Bibles found in local
languages were a soldier's personal items and had been confiscated.
(AFP/File/Liu Jin) May 4, 2009

A U.S. soldier of 3rd Platoon Cherokee Troop from the 3rd Brigade,
10th Mountain Division aims his rifle during a patrol in Logar province
April 13, 2009. (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood) April 16, 2009

Children pass by as a U.S. army occupation soldier from Demon
Dog Company, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment patrols a street
in eastern Mosul, , Monday, April 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
April 07, 2009

A U.S. army soldier from Warrior Battery, 2nd Battalion, 82nd
Field Artillery Regiment, patrols a street in eastern Mosul, 360
kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April
2, 2009. U.S. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic) April 03, 2009

U.S. troops take up position on a major street after a gunfight
sparked Saturday at the dominantly Sunni neighborhood of Fadhil
in Baghdad, Sunday, March 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) March
29, 2009

U.S. soldiers stand guard during a graduation ceremony of former
neighbourhood patrol members, known locally as "Sahwas"
from a training course in Baghdad's Jihad District March 24, 2009.
About 400 former members of Sahwas graduated from a six-month training
course supervised and backed by the U.S. forces. The training included
areas in engineering, logistics, pipeline services, security and
training (REUTERS/Bassim Shati) March 24, 2009

In this May 17, 2006, file photo Herbert Reed, 52, a veteran
of Iraq, shows the medicines he takes everyday for pain at his home
in Columbia, S.C. Reed was exposed to radioactive depleted uranium
while serving a few months with the 442nd Military Police out of
New York. A new U.S. congressional report, prepared for a hearing
on Thursday, March 12, 2009, says officials from the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a branch of the Health
and Human Services department charged with protecting the public
near toxic pollution sites, 'deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or
ignore legitimate health concerns.' (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
March 12, 2009

A U.S. soldier scares children during an inspection at a newly
reopened school after its renovation by U.S. forces in Baghdad's
Hurriya district in this March 5, 2009 picture. (REUTERS/Mohammed
Ameen) March 07, 2009

US Army Staff Sergeant Michael Downing, 42, a double amputee
after being wounded last September in Afghanistan, is seen at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Like other veterans at Walter
Reed, Downing says he has turned the page and works fiercely to
relearn basic movements. (AFP/Daphne Benoit) March 01, 2009

A U.S. occupation soldier eats lunch at an Iraqi police station
in Baghdad's al-Doura district February 26, 2009. REUTERS/Bassim
Shati) February 26 2009

US soldiers secure an area where a bomb exploded near a mini
bus carrying Shiite Muslims in Baghdad on February 15, 2009. (AFP/Ahmad
al-Rubaye) February 15, 2009

U.S. military band plays during a detainee release ceremony
in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009. Some 100 Iraqis were
released from U.S. military custody but thousands remain behind
bars. . (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) February 12, 2009

A U.S. soldier of 1-8 Infantry Battalion stands guard at the
corridor of Al-Salaam hospital in Mosul, January 29, 2009. U.S.
soldiers held a meeting with officials and building contractors
of the hospital on Thursday to discuss improvement of their facilities
in Mosul. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro) February 01, 2009

A U.S. soldier of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division
stands guard during a patrol inside Baiji oil refinery, 180 km (112
miles) north of Baghdad January 23, 2009. (Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani)
January 27, 2009

A wounded U.S. soldier is carried following a blast in Kabul,
Afghanistan, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009. A suicide car bomb attack
on a heavily guarded road between the German Embassy and a U.S.
military base set the embassy on fire Saturday, killing an Afghan
child and wounding 21 people, including five U.S. troops. (AP Photo/Musadeq
Sadeq) January 17, 2009

Wounded veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pedal across
the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys near Marathon, Florida,
January 16, 2009. About 25 injured veterans and 36 other supporters
joined the ride down segments of the Florida Keys Overseas Highway
for Soldier Ride, an activity staged by the Wounded Warrior Project
to provide inspiration and raise funds for injured comrades recovering
in American military hospitals. (REUTERS/Andy Newman/Florida Keys
News) January 17, 2009

Pallbearers carry the flag-drapped casket of Army Maj. John
P. Pryor into the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in
Philadelphia, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Pryor, of Moorestown, N.J.,
died Christmas Day when a mortar round hit near his living quarters
in Iraq. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) January 7, 2009

U.S. soldiers lift a fellow soldier as they celebrate the new
year at U.S. military Camp Taji near Baghdad January 1, 2009. (REUTERS/Erik
de Castro) January 1, 2009
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US
soldiers on a patrol July 17, 2011 in Iskandariya, Babil Province
Iraq. President Obama lies directly to the American people when
he states that there are "no more U.S. combat troops in Iraq."
( ) August 14, 2011

Marine
Sgt. Rob Jones, 25, of Lovettsville, Va., listens to a question
during an interview with The Associated Press at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Washington, Thursday, July 21, 2011. Walter Reed
Army Medical Center, the military's flagship hospital where privates
to presidents have gone for care for more than a century, is closing
its doors. Hundreds of thousands of the nation's war wounded from
World War I to today have received treatment at Walter Reed, including
18,000 troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Luis
M. Alvarez) July 24, 2011

Sgt.
Eric Scharf, 27, of Temecula, Calif., with the U.S. Army's 3rd Platoon,
Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion 27th Infantry Regiment based in Hawaii,
does a radio check with the watchtowers Sunday, July 10, 2011 at
Observation Point Mustang, elevation 6,000 feet, in Kunar province,
Afghanistan. (AP Photo/David Goldman) July 10, 2011

U.S
Marines play basketball next to a pole with direction signs at the
Camp Dwyer in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, June 26, 2011.
When they finished they showered with clean water and rested in
airconditioned rooms while watching the latest movies on large-screen
LCDs. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) June 26, 2011

An
Army carry team lifts a transfer case containing the remains of
Army Capt. Michael W. Newton as a transfer case containing the remains
of Marine Lance Cpl. Jason D. Hill sits on a loader Tuesday, June
14, 2011 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department
of Defense, Newton, 30, of Newport News, Va., died June 11, 2011
of injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident in Faryab
province, Afghanistan and Hill, 20, of Poway, Calif., died June
11, 2011 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province.
(AP Photo/Steve Ruark) June 19, 2011

Soldiers
from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, prepare to board
an airplane to deploy to Iraq, Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at Fort Hood,
Texas. The brigade is embarking on its fourth deployment to Iraq...despite
Obama Administration claims that it is withdrawing by Dec. 31, 2011.
(AP Photo/Killeen Daily Herald, Catrina Rawson) June 9, 2011

Anne-Marie
Valdepenas walks up to plant a flag for her fallen son Lance Cpl.
Eric Paul Valdepenas during a Memorial Day remembrance at the Soldiers
and Sailors Monument on the Boston Common in Boston, Thursday morning,
May 26, 2011. Ten thousand American flags have been place near the
monument to represent the number of Massachusetts citizens who have
given their lives in America's wars. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia) May
29, 2011

A US Navy combat nurse carries blood products in his pocket as another
lays on the floor while transporting a wounded Marine suffering
a gunshot wound to hospital on a medevac helicopter of the US Army's
Task Force Lift 'Dust Off', Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment
from Forward Operating Base Edi, in the volatile Helmand Province
of southern Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Kevin
Frayer) May 21, 2011

Pablo and Maria Vazquez, parents of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Omar J. Vazquez,
25, of Hamilton Township, N.J., hold American flags and medals,
including a Bronze Star, during their son's funeral service at Greenwood
Cemetery Veterans Field of Honor Mausoleum in Hamilton Township,
N.J. Vazquez was killed April 22, 2011, during the occupation in
southern Iraq. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) May 8, 2011

Family members look on as a U.S. Marine honor guard prepare to remove
the casket of 26-year-old Staff Sgt. Jeremy D. Smith of Arlington,
Texas, from a hearse during a funeral service at Dallas-Fort Worth
National Cemetery Friday, April 15, 2011, in Dallas. Friends and
family gathered to pay tribute to a North Texas Marine who died
last week, apparently the first case of American troops killed by
a missile fired from a U.S. drone. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) April
27, 2011

U.S. Army soldiers walk through water after a flash flood swept
through Combat Outpost Terra Nova following heavy rains in the Arghandab
Valley north of Kandahar April 16, 2011. (REUTERS/Bob Strong) April
17, 2011

Chaplain Col. Scott H. Jenssen direct aprayer over the transfer
cases containing the remains of Army 1st Lt. Robert F. Welch III
of Denton, Texas, Army Sgt. Christian A. Garcia of Goodyear, Arizona,
Army Sgt. Quadi S. Hudgins of New Orleans, La, and Army Sgt. Jorge
A. Scatliffe of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, upon arrival at
Dover Air Force Base, Del. on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. The Department
of Defense announced the death of Sgt. Garcia, Sgt. Hudgins and
Scatliffe in Iraq and 1st Lt. Welch III in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jose
Luis Magana) April 6, 2011

SFC Priscilla Jones (R) and SPC Jennifer Andersson from 159th Combat
Aviation Brigade, from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, point to their new
Combat Patches after a ceremony to honor U.S. occupation troops
for their combat experience, at Kandahar Airfield, southern Afghanistan,
April 1, 2011. (REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov) April 1, 2011

In this photo taken Wednesday, March 16, 2011, U.S. Army soldiers
from A Co., 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade,
1st Infantry Division gather to watch a comrade's re-enlistment
ceremony at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The American invasion
of Iraq was only supposed to take a few months, instead soldiers
are serving there who were only children when George W. Bush began
the war. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) March 19, 2011

In this Feb. 24, 2011 photo, U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Nathan Stocking,
27, from Phoenix, left, and U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Todd Voeller,
28, from Glendale, Ariz., right, pay tribute to a Marine killed
in action from 2nd Platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine
Regiment during a memorial ceremony in Sangin district southern
Helmand province of Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Sebastian Abbot) March
7, 2011

A US Army soldier runs to get ready to evacuate injured German
soldier to the German Army hospital in Kunduz, north of Kabul, Afghanistan,
Friday, Feb. 18, 2011. At least two German soldiers died and seven
got severely injured when an Afghan National Army soldier open up
fire when the German soldiers arrived back to the base in Pul-e
Khumri, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) February 20, 2011

The combat boot of a wounded U.S. Marine sits next to him on
a medevac helicopter from the United States Army's Task Force Shadow
'Dust Off', Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he was
injured by an improvised explosive device near Marjah, in southern
Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Kevin
Frayer) January 30, 2011

A U.S. Marine carries a wounded colleague to a medevac helicopter
with the U.S. Army Task Force Shadow 'Dust Off', Charlie Company
1-214 Aviation Regiment after their convoy, including the destroyed
truck at background left, hit an improvised explosive device near
Marjah in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province on Thursday, Jan.
27, 2011. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) January 27, 2011

U.S. Marine, Juan L. Garcia, gives his aunt and uncle, Alicia
and George Williams, a hug at the Corpus Christi International Airport
in Corpus Christi, Texas, as the body of his cousin, Lance Cpl.
Jose Maldonado, is taken to a waiting hearse Tuesday, Dec 28, 2010.
Maldonado of Mathis died Friday during combat in the Helmand province
of southern Afghanistan. Maldonado was assigned to 3rd Battalion,
5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary
Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. (AP Photo/Corpus Christi Caller-Times,
Todd Yates) January 23, 2011

A U.S. service member takes a photo of U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden as he meets the U.S. troops at Bagram air base, northwest
of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. Biden, part of
Obama's War Administration, said on Tuesday that America's commitment
to Afghanistan will not end in 2014, the date when the U.S.-led
military coalition is to hand over control of the country's security
to Afghan forces. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic) January 15, 2011

A U.S soldier play pool during New Year's eve at Camp Phoenix
in Kabul December 31, 2010. While U.S. soldiers enjoy their creature
comforts, millions of Afghan civilians are homeless refugees in
their own country. (REUTERS/Omar Sobhani) January 1, 2011

US soldiers enjoy lunch during Christmas celebrations at Bagram
air base, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010 (AP
Photo/Altaf Qadri) December 26, 2010

Hundreds of members of Veterans for Peace and antiwar activists
protested outside of the White House on December 16 to oppose President
Obama's military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 131 were
arrested. (Bill Perry) December 19, 2010

A US soldier stands guard near the scene of an explosion in
Kandahar south of Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010.
A car bomb exploded outside a police headquarters in Kandahar, wounding
at least six people and blowing out the windows of buildings up
to a mile away. (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan) December 12, 2010

A Marine carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains
of Lance Cpl. Michael E. Geary Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 at Dover Air
Force Base. Geary, 20, of Derry, N.H., died Dec. 8, 2010 while conducting
combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Steve
Ruark) December 10, 2010

Vermont National Guard Spc. Travis Cook, of Bellows Falls, Vt.,
sits with his wife, Jennifer, who holds their son Travis II during
a homecoming ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010, in South Burlington,
Vt. Eighty more Vermont National Guard soldiers are back home after
a yearlong deployment, which included about nine months occupying
in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) December 04, 2010

US soldiers eat Thanksgiving dinner at the US base in Bagram
north of Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Nov 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Musadeq
Sadeq) November 28, 2010

An honor guard carries the casket of seven US soldiers killed
in Afghanistan before a funeral ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery
in Virginia November 18, 2010. Staff Sgt. Luis Gonzalez, of South
Ozone Park, N.Y.; Sgt. Fernando Delarosa, of Alamo, Texas; Sgt.
Dale Griffin, of Terre Haute, Ind.; Sgt. Issac Jackson, of Plattsburg,
Mo.; Sgt. Patrick Williamson, of Broussard, La.; Spc. Jared Stanker,
of Evergreen Park, Ill.; and Pfc. Christopher Walz, of Vancouver,
Wash; were killed as a result of a road side bomb on October 27,
2009. (REUTERS/Yuri Gripas) November 21, 2010

Crew Chief Specialist Dennis Cater (C) from CCO., 1-214 AVN
Dustoff, helps U.S. Marines Lance Corporal Zachary Byron (R), who
was shot in the leg and the arm, as his comrade Corporal Andrew
Campbell, who was shot in the leg, looks on during a Medevac mission
in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province November 10, 2010. Picture
taken November 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Peter Andrews) November 12, 2010

U.S. Marines from the First Battalion, Eighth Marines Bravo
Company take a break during a lull in a battle against Taliban insurgents
in Musa Qala district in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province
November 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) November 09, 2010

Concussed Alpha Company 1st Battalion 8th Marines Sgt. Thomas
James Brennan (L) of Randolph, Massachusetts, LCpl. James Roche
(C) LCpl. John Chun, both of New Jersey and LCpl. James Edward Orr
(R) of Eufaula, Alabama rest in a compound offering cover after
rocket propelled grenades exploded near their positions during a
battle against Taliban insurgents in the town of Nabuk in southern
Afghanistan's Helmand province, November 1, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr
O'Reilly ) November 03, 2010

In this Saturday, Dec. 16, 2007 photo, U.S. Army medical staff
rush an Iraqi woman who was shot in the face by U.S. troops in an
'escalation of force' incident, to the emergency room at Ibn Sina
Hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. Military documents
in the biggest leak of secret information in U.S. history suggest
that far more Iraqis died than previously acknowledged during the
years of sectarian bloodletting and criminal violence unleashed
by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) October
25, 2010

A US State Department worker swims in Camp Nathan Smith, an
ISAF military base in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct
20, 2010. Occupation nation workers and soldiers enjoy first-world
perks while many Afghans live in stone-age conditions. (AP Photo/Rodrigo
Abd) October 21, 2010

A US soldier in party clothes walks on her way to 'Salsa Night',
a themed evening event in Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Saturday,
Oct. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) October 19, 2010

U.S. Army and Afghan National Army troops carry a wounded U.S.
soldier through a dust cloud to a medevac helicopter after his ankle
was badly broken by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar
province, October 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) October 13,
2010

A medic from Alpha Company, 1-22 Infantry Battalion treats colleagues
who are sick with intestinal flu in a medical tent in a remote joint
U.S.-Afghan military tactical checkpoint base in Kandahar province
in southern Afghanistan October 8, 2010. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro)
October 9, 2010

.S. soldiers from 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1-22 Infantry
Battalion play "Magic: The Gathering" trading cards while
resting after patrol in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan
October 3, 2010. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro) October 3, 2010

A U.S. military medic (L) gestures for a stretcher for a wounded
Afghan soldier, to colleagues from a "Dustoff" Task Force
Shadow medevac helicopter while rescuing victims of a roadside bomb
attack that struck a joint U.S.Afghan military patrol in Kandahar
province, Afghanistan September 30, 2010. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro)
October 1, 2010

U.S. soldiers on patrol in Laghman Province, Afghanistan on
September 25, 2010. (AFP) September 26, 2010

U.S. army soldiers from Delta Company, a part of Task Force
1-66, patrol in the village of Gul Kalacheh, Arghandab River valley,
Kandahar province, September 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Oleg Popov) September
21, 2010

A U.S. marine from 1st Light Armoured Reconnaisance Battalion,
Alpha Company reads a magazine at the Tactical Control Point 2 in
Taghaz village in Helmand, Afghanistan September 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Erik
de Castro) September 12, 2010

Sgt. Charles Reed, from Steam Boat, Colo., of the 715 Military
Intelligence Unit, center, celebrates his 34th birthday with his
colleagues and the staff at TGI Fridays restaurant on the boardwalk
at Kandahar Air Force Base, Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 6, 2010.
(AP Photo/Adil Bradlow) September 7, 2010

A US army soldier from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion of the
3rd Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard, carries two of his
daughters as his wife holds a third after they were reunited upon
his return from a 12-month deployment in Iraq at Fort Myer, Virginia,
on the outskirts of Washington. Now his family wonders if he'll
be deployed to Afghanistan.
(AFP/Nicholas Kamm) August 30, 2010

U.S. Army Pfc. Richard Flynn, of Starke, Fla., of Tactical Command
Post, HQ Company, 2-502 Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, carries
an AT-4 rocket as he walks with platoon-mates on a joint patrol
with the Afghan Army, in Zhari district, Kandahar province, southern
Afghanistan, Wednesday Aug. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
August 26, 2010

A soldier is carried onto a U.S. Army, 101st Airborne Division,
Task Force Destiny medical evacuation helicopter, in Zhari district,
Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 20, 2010.
(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) August 22, 2010

U.S. Marines carry a wounded comrade to a waiting medevac helicopter
near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province, August 17, 2010. Despite
claims by the Pentagon, U.S. troops continue to come under attack
by the citizens of Afghanistan even in small towns. (REUTERS/Bob
Strong) August 15, 2010

A U.S soldier raises his hands during a Gospel service on Kandahar
Airfield, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
August 08, 2010

A U.S soldiers lifts weights in a gym on Kandahar Airfield,
Afghanistan, Saturday, July 31, 2010. The largest military base
in southern Afghanistan has a population by some estimates of at
least 20,000 soldiers and civilians, and has many of the same services
of a small American city. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) August 06, 2010

U.S. Army soldiers from the 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade
of the 101st Airborne Division, wake up in the early morning at
COP Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan,
Monday, July 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) July 26, 2010

US soldiers of 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry clean their rifles
at their forward operating base in Dand district of Kandahar Province
in Afghanistan. (AFP/Manpreet Romana) July 20, 2010

In this Tuesday, July 13, 2010 photo, U.S. Army soldiers from
2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division are seen on board a C-17 aircraft
at Baghdad International Airport as they begin their journey to
the United States. The soldiers, based at Fort Drum, N.Y., are headed
home after nine months in Iraq as part of the U.S. drawdown of forces,
which begins in earnest next month. The number of soldiers in Iraq
is expected to go from 77,500 currently in the country to 50,000
by September 1. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) July 14, 2010

The transfer cases, containing the remains of Army Spc. Keenan
Cooper, of Wahpeton, N.D., left, and Army Staff Sgt. Christopher
Cabacoy, of Virginia Beach, VA., sit atop a cargo lift at Dover
Air Force Base, Wednesday, July 7, 2010. According to the Department
of Defense, Cooper and Cabacoy died while supporting Operation Enduring
Disaster in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) July 8, 2010

A U.S. patrol stands alert next to a building in Kunduz, July
2, 2010 (AFP) July 2, 2010

An Afghan villager prays beside a U.S. soldier with C Troop
1-71 CAV during a patrol in the village of Maruf-Kariz in Dand district,
south of Kandahar, June 26, 2010. (REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov) June
27, 2010

A casket containing the remains of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Michael
C. Bailey is carried to a waiting hearse after arriving by chartered
jet at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Tuesday, June 22,
2010, in St. Louis. Bailey, 29, of Park Hills, Mo., died June 16
after he was shot while on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) June 24, 2010

U.S. Army 1LT Joel Meyer (R) of Lindenhurst, Illinois and U.S.
Army PFC Matthew Jobe of Louisiana, from C Troop 1-71 CAV, leave
their base to patrol in the village of Maruf-Kariz in Dand district,
south of Kandahar June 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov) June 22,
2010

An Air Force pararescuer places his flash badge next to others
on Staff Sgt. Michael P. Flores' casket as his widow, Tech. Sgt.
Marisa L. Flores, right, receives a hug from another pararescuer
during funeral services, Saturday, June 19, 2010 at Fort Sam Houston
National Cemetery in San Antonio. Flores died in a helicopter crash
in Afghanistan on June 9. (AP Photo/San Antonio Express-News, Tom
Reel) June 21, 2010

U.S. Army Private Randell Stewart with C Troop 1-71 CAV is reflected
in an irrigation canal as he patrols in the village of Gorgan in
Dand district, south of Kandahar, June 20, 2010. (REUTERS/Denis
Sinyakov) June 20, 2010

A US soldier stands near a plane bound for Afghanistan, as it
fuels up at the Manas Transit Center some 30kms from Bishkek in
March 2010. The Pentagon said Thursday it is in talks with Kyrgyzstan's
provisional government about fuel supplies for its operations at
Manas air base, a key transit point for US troops headed to Afghanistan.
(AFP/File/Vyacheslav Oseledko) June 15, 2010

A U.S. occupation soldier patrols on foot in Kerbala, 50 miles
south of Baghdad June 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed) June 11,
2010

US soldiers of the 97th MP Battalion listen to a Canadian soldier
playing the guitar at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar on June 8. At
sunset, in a garden with flowers, NATO soldiers gathered for a poignant
memorial service for a Canadian soldier in southern Afghanistan
-- one of 18 men killed in just three days. (AFP/Ed Jones) June
9, 2010

Military personnel of the International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) chat with each other at Kandahar Air Field, southern
Afghanistan, June 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov) June 6, 2010

Rachelle Vaughn, center, poses with her 18-month-old son Richard
next to a picture of her husband in her home in San Diego, Army
Sgt. Richard Vaughn was killed in Iraq in 2008 (AP Photo/Gregory
Bull) May 29, 2010

U.S. marines Tommy Delco and Jed Davis from 3rd Battalion, 6th
Marines search an Afghan citizen's in a compound in Marjah district,
Helmand province, May 18, 2010.(REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih) May 25, 2010

Civilian and military personnel sit in a shelter during a ground
and rocket attack by militants at Kandahar Air Field May 22, 2010.
Several NATO troops were wounded when Taliban militants fired rockets
at Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, and there
were fears insurgents may have entered the base, the alliance said.
The rocket and mortar fire was followed by a ground attack on the
massive base in the capital where NATO forces are preparing a series
of offensives to wrest control of the province. (REUTERS/Nikola
Solic) May 23, 2010

A US soldier patrols near Belanday village, Dand district in
Kandahar on May 15 as President Obama plans to send tens of thousands
more occupations forces into the district for a summer offensive.
(AFP/File/Tauseef Mustafa) May 18, 2010

NATO officers and workers walk by fast food restaurants Burger
King, Pizza Hut and Subway in Kandahar air base April 30, 2010.
(REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis) May 1, 2010

U.S. Marines from Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines sleep
in their "patrol base" in the area of Karez-e-Sayyidi,
near Marjah district, Helmand province April 17, 2010. (REUTERS/Asmaa
Waguih) April 18, 2010

In this March 12, 2010 photo, former U.S. Marine Sgt. Joe Callan
lifts his son Max in the air at their home in Albuquerque, N.M.
It wasn't his first tour in Iraq, but his second and third when
Callan began wondering how long his luck would last, how many more
months he could swerve around bombs buried in the dirt and duck
mortars raining from the skies. Three tours in four years and Callan
wanted out. Out of Iraq, out of the Marines. Nearly 300,000 troops
have served three, four or more times. And, records show, more than
half of those currently at war are at least on their second tour.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) April 16, 2010

U.S. servicemen pray during an Easter service in Kandahar April
4, 2010 as they prepare to kill in Jesus' name.. (REUTERS/Tim Wimborne)
April 4, 2010

U.S. Marine Staff Sgt Matthew Dalrymple of the 3rd Battalion,
6th Marines, holds the dog tag of a comrade who lost his life in
February's Marjah offensive during a memorial service in camp Sharwali,
Marjah district, Helmand province March 26, 2010. (REUTERS/Asmaa
Waguih) March 31, 2010

Soldiers with 508th Special Troops Battalion, 82nd Airborne
Division, descend from a mountain range outside the town of Kandahar,
southern Afghanistan March 27, 2010. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) March
28, 2010

A U.S. soldier from 293D Military Police Company, 97th Military
Police Battalion stands next to a poster during a patrol in the
town of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan March 22, 2010. (REUTERS/Shamil
Zhumatov) March 23, 2010

Family and friends walk behind the casket carrying the comingled
remains of Army Chief Warrant Officer Matthew G. Kelley, Chief Warrant
Officer Joshua M. Tillery, Chief Warrant Officer Benjamin H. Todd,
and Chief Warrant Officer Phillip E. Windorski carried on a cason
during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington,
Va., Thursday, March 18, 2010. The four Soldiers died from wounds
sustained in Iraq and were assigned to the 10th Mountain Division,
Fort Drum, N.Y., at the time of their deaths on Jan. 29, 2009. (AP
Photo/Cliff Owen) March 19, 2010

Maj. Gen. David Quantock speaks to reporters during a handover
ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 15, 2010. The U.S. military
has turned over Taji prison holding some 2,900 detainees to Iraqi
authorities. However, thousands of Iraqi citizens remain in American
custody in their own country. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) March 16, 2010

A U.S. soldier walks up Jangalbagh hill as Afghans plant trees
to make a picnic spot, north of Ghazni city March 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Mustafa
Andalib) March 14, 2010

An Army carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains
of Spc. Lakeshia Bailey, Wednesday, March 10, 2010, at Dover Air
Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Bailey,
23, of Columbus, Ga., died March 8 north of Al Kut, Iraq, of injuries
sustained during a vehicle roll-over. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) March
11, 2010

Soldiers of the U.S. Army National Guard 162 Engineer Company
attached with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion of U.S. Marine Corps
rest in their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehicle
after the MRAP was hit by road side bomb, while providing a route
clearance for a convoy delivering supplies to the remote U.S. Marine
base in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, March 6, 2010. Picture
taken March 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) March 7, 2010

In this photo released by the U.S. Army on Tuesday, Feb. 23,
2010, Staff Sgt. Bradley Wilson, from Willard, Ohio, with the 1192nd
Eng. Co., guides a barrier into place at Joint Security Station
Constitution in Baghdad, Iraq, . U.S. Soldiers are building a barrier
yard for 6th Iraqi Army to use during the elections. (AP Photo/1st
Lt. Tanner Dunlap, U.S. Army,HO) February 27, 2010

U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment play with
a puppy they found in a compound that an Afghan family had fled
and abandoned in Marjah, Afghanistan on Monday, Feb. 22, 2010. From
right are Eric Dorsey of Washington D.C. and Naval corpsman medic
HMC Alexander Rodgers of Soldotna, Alaska. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
February 22, 2010

U.S. Marines from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines
rounding up Marjah residents during Operation Moshtarak, February
21, 2010.
(REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) February 21, 2010

U.S. Marines gear up early in the morning in Marjah, Helmand
province, February 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) February
19, 2010

Two wounded marines are evacuated from Marjah on February 14,
2010. (BBC News) February 15, 2010

U.S Army First Lieutenant Sean Snook from Concord, Massachusetts,
and Alpha Company, 4th Brigade combat team,1-508, 82nd parachute
infantry regiment tees off at FOB Bullard in Zabul province, southern
Afghanistan, February 12, 2010.
(REUTERS/Baz Ratner ) February 12, 2010

U.S. Special Forces soldiers leave after a gunbattle in Kabul,
Afghanistan, Monday, Jan. 18, 2010. Taliban militants struck the
heart of the Afghan government in Kabul on Monday, prompting fierce
gunbattles after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the presidential
palace. More explosions rocked the capital as Afghan troops fought
off the attackers. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) January 19, 2010

Julie Martinez wipes a tear as she holds her one-year-old granddaughter
Isabelle Nikes, following a deployment ceremony for her son Joshua
Nikes and other members of the 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery
Regiment, Friday, Jan. 8, 2010, at Fort Lewis, Wash. The group is
preparing to depart for their third deployment to Iraq. (AP Photo/Ted
S. Warren) January 10, 2010

A U.S. service member photographs the casing of the Multi-National
Force-Iraq flag at a ceremony at al-Faw Republican palace in Baghdad,
Friday, Jan. 1, 2010. U.S. forces in Iraq held a ceremony marking
a change from what had formerly been called Multi-National Force-Iraq
to United States Force-Iraq. Structurally the U.S. forces in Iraq
will remain largely the same for the time being, but the name change
symbolizes the changing nature of the U.S. mission here and acknowledges
that a coalition that used to have troops from 32 countries now
has just one. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) January 2, 2010

Spc. Amanda Perez, 23, smiles at husband Sgt. Miguel Perez,
24, as they have lunch at Camp Prosperity in Baghdad, December 29,
2009. The Perezes are one of six married couples who deployed to
Iraq with the 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a Texas Army National
Guard unit headquartered in Houston. They met in the Guard and married
at a courthouse on Oct. 2, during a break in training. (AP Photo/Houston
Chronicle, Mayra Beltran) December 31, 2009

U.S. Army soldiers from Task Force Denali Platoon 1-40 CAV sing
Christmas carols during a Christmas Eve service at FOB Clark in
Khowst province, Afghanistan, December 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Zohra
Bensemra) December 26, 2009

In this Monday, Dec. 7, 2009 a US army soldier takes a retinal
scan of a man at a border crossing point at Rabiya, between Syria
and Iraq. The U.S. army and Iraq's border patrol conduct night-long
sweeps across vast, deserted swaths of land, often idling in the
dark in hopes of ambushing smugglers, foreign fighters and other
criminals. (AP Photo) December 10, 2009

U.S. Army soldiers of 2/377 Task Force Steel eat at their mess
hall at FOB Tillman, Afghanistan, November 19, 2009. (REUTERS/Bruno
Domingos ) November 19, 2009

1st Lt. Austin Huckabee, from San Angelo, Texas, hands a small
bag of candy to a young Iraqi girl while his fellow soldiers raid
her home during a patrol in a small village north of Taji, north
of Baghdad, November 12, 2009. (REUTERS/U.S. Army/Sgt. Travis Zielinski)
November 16, 2009

A US medic treats an injured Afghan soldier in the helicopter
during transportation to a hospital in Kandahar, on November 4.
(AFP/File/Manpreet Romana) November 08, 2009

A U.S. Army vehicle fires on Taliban positions on a mountain
side, outside a base held by the Army's 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry
Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division in the
Pech River Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar province, Wednesday, Oct.
28, 2009. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) October 28, 2009

Spc. Brian Abbott Sr., smiles as he embraces his son Brian Jr.
as members of the Ohio Army National Guard 's 135th Military Police
Company are reunited with their families and friends before a ceremony
at Kenston High School in Bainbridge Twp., Ohio on Sunday, Oct.
18, 2009. The unit spent the past year deployed in Baghdad, Iraq,
where it conducted more than 800 combat patrols, provided convoy
security and trained some 3,500 Iraqi police. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
October 21, 2009

A soldier from the U.S. Army's Able troop, 3rd Squadron, 71st
Cavalry, of 10th Mountain Division based in Fort Drum, New York,
uses a battering ram to break down a door as they search for IED
(improvised explosive device) material during a joint security patrol
with Afghan army soldiers in Baraki Rajan, Baraki Barak district
in Logar province October 10, 2009. (REUTERS/Nikola Solic ) October
17, 2009

A US Marine with camouflage paint on his face from Fox Company
2nd Battalion 3rd Marines prepares to set out from his base in Farah
Province, southern Afghanistan. (AFP/David Furst) October 7, 2009

An Army carry team stands near a transfer case containing the
remains of Army Spc. Ross E. Vogel III Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 at Dover
Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Vogel,
27, of Red Lion, Pa., died Sept. 29 in Kut, Iraq of injuries suffered
from a non-combat related incident. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) October
3, 2009

Col. Steven Bernstein, from St. Louis, Mo. sounds the ram's
horn, also known as a shofar in Hebrew, after a Rosh Hashanah service
at Victory Base Complex (VBC) in Baghdad's international airport
September 18, 2009. (REUTERS/U.S Army/Spc.
Howard Alperin) September 21, 2009

A U.S Marine from Delta Company of 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance
Battalion searches an elderly Afghan man for weapons near the town
of Khan Neshin in Rig district of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan
September 11, 2009. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic) September 13, 2009

A US soldier checks his weapon sights before going on patrol
in Logar Province. (AFP/File/Manan Vatsyayana) September 8, 2009

This December 2, 2005 photo obtained from the US Army shows
then Pfc. Steven Green, preparing to blast a lock off the gate of
an abandoned home during a search operation in Mullah Fayed, Iraq.
Green will spend his life in prison for the gang rape and murder
of an Iraqi girl and the slaughter of her family, a judge ruled
Friday. (AFP/US Army-HO/File/Spc. George Welcome) September 5, 2009

A U.S. soldier, wounded by sniper fire, is evacuated in the
village of Bargematal, Nuristan province, August 25, 2009. (REUTERS/Oleg
Popov) September 1, 2009

A child holds onto her father, a soldier arriving home from
Iraq on August 18 to Fort Carson, Colorado. Faced with rising rates
of suicide and depression, the US Army plans mandatory training
for the entire force designed to make soldiers emotionally "resilient."(AFP/Getty
Images/File/John Moore) August 22, 2009

U.S soldiers patrol in Jabal-us-Sirai north of Kabul, Afghanistan,
Tuesday, Aug 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) August 18, 2009

U.S. soldiers of 2-12 Infantry 4BCT-4ID Task Force Mountain
Warrior walk during a mission on the mountains near Honaker Miracle
camp at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province August 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Carlos
Barria) August 12, 2009

US Marines watch the explosion as their team performs a controlled
detonation of an Improvised Explosives Device (IED) in Nawa district
in Helmand Province on August 2, 2009 while on patrol to locate
and destroy IEDs. (AFP/File/Manpreet Romana) August 4, 2009

A U.S. soldier of the 741st EOD Battalion Counter Improvised
Explosive Device (CIED) Team returns to Forward Operating Base (FOB)
Shank after a mission in Logar Province in Afghanistan July 25,
2009. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) July 26, 2009

A U.S. soldier stands next to a boy during a patrol with Iraqi
forces in Baghdad July 21, 2009. (REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen) July 21,
2009

An Air Force carry team carries a transfer case containing the
remains of Army Spc. Carlos E. Wilcox Saturday, July 18, 2009 at
Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense,
Wilcox, 27, of Cottage Grove, Minn. died July 16 in Basra, Iraq.
(AP Photo/Steve Ruark) July 19, 2009

A U.S. soldier secures the area during the Afghan National Police
graduation ceremony in Maidan Shahr, capital of mountains of Wardak
Province, July 13, 2009. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) July 13, 2009

A U.S. Army soldier relaxes on an armchair, believed to have
belonged to Iraq's late dictator, Saddam Hussein, at al-Faw Palace
on the western outskirts of Baghdad, still occupied by US forces,
Saturday, July 4, 2009. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed) July 10, 2009

A U.S. Marine from 5th Battalion 10th Marines patrols with a
member of an Afghan border guard unit in the desert of the lower
Helmand River valley, in southern Afghanistan July 1, 2009. (REUTERS/
Peter Graff) July 1, 2009

n this photo taken on Monday, June 1, 2009, a fellow soldier
holds the hand of U.S. Pfc. Anthony Vandegrift, of Mililani, Hawaii,
as he informs him the names of three of their comrades that were
killed in the attack that injured him at the U.S. hospital in Bagram
Air base, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Vandegrift, of Bravo Company
287, 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, was wounded and three
of his comrades died when the vehicle they were driving was hit
by a roadside bomb in the Nerkh district of 28, 2009

U.S. soldiers take up positions during a joint search operation
with Iraqi security forces in Saadia area near Baquba, 70 miles
northeast of Baghdad May 18, 2009. Along a fuzzy seam dividing central
Iraq from the largely autonomous enclave of Kurdistan, a row is
bubbling over which authority owns this patchwork of Kurd and Arab
neighbourhoods, river-fed palm groves and multi-billion-barrel oil
fields. (REUTERS/Saad Shalash) June 6, 2009

Egenia Galdos, second right, and husband Carlos Bueno, right,
look on as a military honor guard folds the American Flag off the
casket of their son, U.S. Army Sgt. Christian Bueno-Galdos at Holy
Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa, N.J. on Saturday, May 23, 2009. Officials
said the 25-year-old was among five soldiers gunned down by Sgt.
John M. Russell at a stress clinic in Iraq on May 11. Bueno-Galdos
was born in Peru, but immigrated with his family to Paterson as
a seven-year-old. He joined the Army out of high school. (AP Photo/Mel
Evans) May 24, 2009

A U.S. soldier enters an Iraqi family's yard whil on patrol
in Taji area, 12 miles north of Baghdad May 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Saad
Shalash) May 12, 2009

A U.S. Army soldier from Bulldog Co., 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry
Regiment , squeezes through a metal door with the help of a comrade
and an Iraqi policeman during a joint search operation in Mosul,
Wednesday, April 22, 2009. (AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo) May 3, 2009

A femal U.S. military soldier searches an Iraqi woman before
the woman is reunited with her husband, who was among 32 men released
from U.S. military detention at Camp Bucca to their families in
Tarmiyah, Sunday, April 12, 2009.
(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) April 12, 2009

A transfer case containing the body of Marine Lance Corporal
Blaise A. Oleski is placed into a mortuary transport vehicle by
a carry team upon his return to the U.S. at Dover Air Force Base,
Delaware, April 9, 2009. Oleski from Holland Patent, New York, died
while serving during Operation Enduring Disaster in Afghanistan.
(REUTERS/Tim Shaffer) April 10, 2009

A U.S. soldier stands guard as members of Afghan Public Protection
Force leave a graduation ceremony in Jalrez district of Wardak province,
west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 31, 2009. After three
weeks of training, the newest security experiment to protect Afghanistan's
countryside from Taliban fighters was on display for this village
in central Afghanistan's Wardak province. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
April 05, 2009

Iraq war veteran, former California Army National Guardsman
Ron Vance, sits on the porch of his Fresno, Calif., home Tuesday,
Feb. 25, 2009. The electric shock that ripped through Sgt. Vance's
body while showering at a U.S. base in Iraq in 2004 knocked him
unconscious. Since the start of the war in 2003, hundreds of troops
have been shocked in electrical incidents in U.S. facilities in
Iraq; others have died, including three soldiers killed in showers
on U.S. bases. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian) March 31, 2009

A US soldier kneels by an Iraqi woman holding a baby as US and
Iraqi troops invade her neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March
23, 2009. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) March 26, 2009

Anti-war activists stage a symbolic 'die-in' in the middle of
Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Kodak Theater Los Angeles protesting
against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Saturday, March 21,
2009, the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
(AP Photo/Jason Redmond) March 22, 2009

A U.S. soldier watches over detainees while they talk to their
family members during visitation hours at a U.S. military detention
facility Camp Bucca, Iraq, Tuesday, March 17, 2009. More than 9,600
detainees who were captured as "national security threats"
over the last four years are still being held there; at its peak,
the prison located 340 miles southeast of Baghdad held 26,000 detainees.
(AP Photo/Dusan Vranic) March 18, 2009

U.S. soldiers cheer as their colleagues take part in a 5 km
running competition during a celebration of St. Patrick's Day. REUTERS/Saad
Shalash ) March 15, 2009

U.S. soldier patrol near the site of an explosion in the outskirts
of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, March 15, 2009. A roadside bomb hit
a convoy carrying the mayor of a key southern city Sunday, killing
a passer-by, while clashes and bombings around the rest of Afghanistan
killed 13 others, officials said.
(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) March 15, 2009

More than 147,000 occupation troops and another 130,000 foreign
"contractors" remain in Iraq five years after the 2003
invasion. (AFP Graphic) March 08, 2009

Outgoing U.S. soldiers from the 2-24 Field artillery attend
their responsibilities transfer to 118 Infantry Unit during a ceremony
in Camp Prosperity in Baghdad's Green Zone March 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Saad
Shalash) March 04, 2009

Chart showing number of US soldiers killed in Iraq per year
since 2003. (AFP/Graphic/null) February 28 2009

A U.S. soldier buys cotton candy from a vendor in Baghdad's
Haifa Street February 18, 2009. (REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen) February
22, 2009

U.S. servicemen sit inside a C-17 Globemaster waiting to take
off for Afghanistan at Manas Air Base near Kyrgyzstan's capital
Bishkek, February 13, 2009. Kyrgyzstan is delaying a decision on
whether to close the last U.S. airbase in Central Asia while it
bargains with both the United States and Russia. (REUTERS/Shamil
Zhumatov) February 13, 2009

Cap. Michael Harris, commander of U.S. Army's Alfa Company,
1st Battalion of 32nd Infantry Regiment, speaks with an Afghan family
during a patrol near Nawapass village, Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan
February 6, 2009. (Oleg Popov/Reuters) February 08, 2009

A wounded U.S. soldier is being helped following a blast in
Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009. A suicide car bomb
attack on a heavily guarded road between the German Embassy and
a U.S. military base set the embassy on fire Saturday, killing an
Afghan child and wounding 21 people, including five U.S. troops.
(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) January 19, 2009

A U.S. soldier from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry
plays with a puppy at a joint security station in Tarmiya, north
of Baghdad January 5, 2009. (REUTERS/May Naji) January 12, 2009

Soldiers with the US Army 6-4 Cavalry pelt each other with snowballs
at Combat Outpost Lowell in eastern Afghanistan January 10, 2009.
(REUTERS/Bob Strong) January 10, 2009

A boy offers a cup of tea to a patrolling U.S. soldier of Bravo
Company, 1-14 Infantry Battalion in Tarmiya near Baghdad, January
1, 2009. (REUTERS/Erik de Castro ) January 4, 2009
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