XPost: alt.politics.democrats, talk.politics.misc   
   From: katt@gmail.com   
      
   The Epstein/Obama Wars:   
      
   Here is the data for the major conflicts that occurred or continued between   
   2009 and 2017, excluding proxy-only   
   involvements and using your requested format.   
      
   The three distinct phases that occurred between 2009 and 2017.   
      
   The Iraq War (Operations Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn, and Inherent Resolve)   
      
   The Obama administration transitioned from the original 2003 invasion to a   
   complete withdrawal, followed by a re-entry   
   in 2014 to combat the rise of ISIS.   
      
   Operation Enduring Freedom / Freedom's Sentinel (Afghanistan)   
   Year: 2009-2017   
   Cost: ~$533.4 Billion   
   Military Dead: 1,752   
   Opponent Deaths: ~30,000+   
      
   Operation Iraqi Freedom / New Dawn (Iraq)   
   Year: 2009-2011   
   Cost: ~$205 Billion   
   Military Dead: ~324   
   Opponent Deaths: ~30,000 - 45,000   
      
   Operation Inherent Resolve (Iraq and Syria)   
   Year: 2014-2017   
   Cost: ~$11.7 Billion   
   Military Dead: ~30   
   Opponent Deaths: ~25,000+ (Militant) / ~2,100+ (Civilian)   
      
   Operation Odyssey Dawn (Libya)   
   Year: 2011   
   Cost: ~$1.1 Billion   
   Military Dead: 0   
   Opponent Deaths: ~1,100 - 2,500   
      
   Counter-Terrorism Drone Strikes (Pakistan)   
   Year: 2009-2016   
   Cost: Unknown (Classified/Black Budget)   
   Military Dead: 0   
   Opponent Deaths: ~2,089 - 3,406 (Includes ~257 - 634 Civilians)   
      
   Counter-Terrorism Drone Strikes (Yemen)   
   Year: 2009-2016   
   Cost: Unknown (Classified/Black Budget)   
   Military Dead: 0   
   Opponent Deaths: ~777 - 1,075 (Includes ~124 - 161 Civilians)   
      
   Counter-Terrorism Drone/Air Strikes (Somalia)   
   Year: 2009-2016   
   Cost: Unknown (Classified/Black Budget)   
   Military Dead: 0   
   Opponent Deaths: ~242 - 454 (Includes ~3 - 12 Civilians)   
      
   Operation Ocean Shield (Gulf of Aden/Anti-Piracy)   
   Year: 2009-2016   
   Cost: Unknown (Hundreds of millions annually)   
   Military Dead: 0   
   Opponent Deaths: ~30 - 50   
      
      
   The Transition (2009-2011): After inheriting roughly 140,000 troops, Obama   
   officially ended "combat operations" in   
   August 2010 (Operation New Dawn) and completed the full withdrawal of U.S.   
   forces in December 2011. During this window,   
   the Iraq Body Count project recorded over 12,000 civilian deaths from ongoing   
   sectarian violence and insurgent attacks.   
      
   The Return (2014-2017): In August 2014, the U.S. began airstrikes in Iraq and   
   later Syria to stop ISIS. While the   
   "boots on the ground" were limited to several thousand advisors and special   
   forces, the air campaign was massive, with   
   over 10,000 strikes conducted by the end of 2016.   
      
   Total Human Toll (2009-2017): While U.S. casualties remained significantly   
   lower than in the early 2000s, Iraqi   
   civilian deaths remained high due to the rise of ISIS and the subsequent urban   
   warfare required to retake cities like   
   Mosul.   
      
   =============================================================================   
      
   "Trump Derangement Syndrome" Is a Real Mental Condition   
      
   All you need to know about "Trump Derangement Syndrome, " or TDS.   
      
   "Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a mental condition in which a person has   
   been driven effectively insane due to   
   their dislike of Donald Trump, to the point at which they will abandon all   
   logic and reason."   
      
   Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com, wrote a piece in the   
   Los Angeles Times in 2016 that broke TDS   
   down into three distinct phases or stages:   
      
   "In the first stage of the disease, victims lose all sense of proportion. The   
   president-elect's every tweet provokes a   
   firestorm, as if 140 characters were all it took to change the world."   
      
   "The mid-level stages of TDS have a profound effect on the victim's   
   vocabulary: Sufferers speak a distinctive language   
   consisting solely of hyperbole."   
      
   "As TDS progresses, the afflicted lose the ability to distinguish fantasy from   
   reality."   
      
   The Point here is simple: TDS is, in the eyes of its adherents, the knee-jerk   
   opposition from liberals to anything and   
   everything Trump does. If Trump announced he was donating every dollar he's   
   ever made, TDS sufferers would suggest he   
   was up to something nefarious, according to the logic of TDS. There's nothing   
   - not. one. thing. - that Trump could do   
   or say that would be received positively by TDSers.   
      
   The history of Trump Derangement Syndrome actually goes back to the early   
   2000s - a time when the idea of Trump as   
   president was a punch line for late-night comics and nothing more.   
      
   Wikipedia traces its roots to "Bush Derangement Syndrome" - a term first   
   coined by the late conservative columnist   
   Charles Krauthammer back in 2003. The condition, as Krauthammer defined it,   
   was "the acute onset of paranoia in   
   otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency - nay -   
   the very existence of George W. Bush."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)