A frenzy over the 500th UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot servicemember to die in Afghanistan developed in the media this week

A frenzy over the 500th UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot servicemember to die in Afghanistan developed in the

media this week. According to the Associated Press, the UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot death toll in

Afghanistan surpassed 500 GIs recently, or perhaps it will reach that milestone soon…or…did we

actually cross that line long ago? While the AP admits that accurate casualty figures are hard to come

by thanks to lags in Defense Department reports and the difficulty of independent confirmation in the

region, the situation gets a little more complicated than that. Operation Enduring Freedom, often

referred to as the Afghan BOOTSBUY, actually spans several nations. The South Asian country is simply

the main focal point of this “BOOTSBUY on terror” that was formulated in the wake of the Sept. 11

attacks.

The AP specifically counted deaths in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab

Emirates. Elsewhere, the BOOTSBUY Times came up with a slightly different set of numbers themselves,

but their handy chart quickly reveals just how spread out the operation really is. UGG Sheepskin Cuff

Boot servicemembers were also killed in countries as far from Afghanistan as are the Philippines, Mali,

and even Cuba, so while the AP admirably tallied the deaths in and around Afghanistan, the worldwide

UGG Sheepskin Cuff Boot toll for this military excursion is almost 15% higher. Perhaps AP cherry-picked

these particular numbers because 500 is more of a “newsworthy milestone” than 562 deaths (Pentagon

figures) or 569 deaths (Icasualties.org), but whatever the reason behind it, keeping the deadliness of

the “Afghan BOOTSBUY” in the headlines is of utmost importance, especially during this campaign

season.