Obscenities of the Iraq War
It's so easy for us to put casualties out of our minds, since the mainstream media is censored by the Bush Administration from showing film or photos of soldier's coffins and much else related to their deaths.
On his ABC This Week Sunday news program, moderator George Stephanopoulos displays the names, home towns and ages of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq the previous week. I never fail to tear-up at the names.
At least I can relate to you how each of the 3,103 soldiers brutally died, so you don't lose sight of our obscene losses from, and the terrible pain caused by, George Bush's battles for oil control:
Cause of Death for U.S. Troops, as of Feb 4, 2007
Car bombs - 130
Mortars & rockets - 110
Rocket-propelled grenades - 80
Helicopter losses - 172
Other hostile fire - 980
Accidents and "friendly fire" - 501
Improvised explosive devices - 1,128TOTAL - 3,103 U.S. soldiers dead in the Iraq War
And did you hear that the Bush Administration's budget proposal for fiscal year 2008 includes a prepostrous $700 Billion for his paranoid War on Terror?
$700 billion in one year, includIng an 11% increase in the Pentagon's budget. Already under the George Bush, the U.S. weapons and arsenal cost totals more than that of the rest of the world COMBINED!
That, my friends, is insanity. And obscene and immoral beyond words.
Recommended Reading
Iraq War Statistics & Results, as of February 4, 2007
Bush Asks for $700 Billion for War on Terror (U.S. Economics)
Iraq Troop Buildup Could Cost $27 Billion, CBO Finds, (U.S. Gov Info)
Comments
Mam as a solider in Iraq it’s time you started telling the truth. The people we are here fighting would rape torture and kill most of the people who are against this war why because they are nothing more than a muslim version of the Nazi’s. If you don’t believe that see what they write about anyone who doesn’t tow there line. sorry you don’t understand this but don’t worry my fello soliders and I will keep on killing the maddogs over here so your safe in home and can keep telling lies about the war Sgt Boucher Iraq
A statistical look at the unmentioned progress the idea of representative democracy is making in the hearts and minds of Iraqis can be found in the WSJ editorial of Feb 6 by Bret Stephens. Speaking of Mithal al-Alusi, head of the Iraqi Nation Party, he notes the concomitant shift in public attitudes toward terrorism and plurality- exactly as predicted by Bush. Exactly as foretold in the documents of our liberty, and in any standard almanac of common sense. People want freedom; they have seen it work, and at some point they are no longer afraid to reveal this discovery. Western journalists are being forced to take note of this, because their own storyline is wearing thin, their rap against the American effort is up against a wall. And standing there are men like Alusi who refuses to draw fine distinctions between Sunni, Shiite, Baathist, secular, local or global strands of terrorism. Instead, he lumps them together as an alliance of fascists, intent on using murder to impose their values, which must be confronted with an equally tenacious alliance against terrorism. There is a simplicity to this which runs counter to the exploitation of nuance necessary to the job security of so many ink devils and newsroom celebrities. Let them remember Daniel Pearl who was passed around among several terrorist groups in Pakistan before being sold to the Arabs who filmed and slaughtered him. Fine distinctions there.
It’s not surprising among a people possessing so many tools for instant gratification, that some will mock the efforts that don’t meet this benchmark. Sad, understandable. But it’s the gaggle who exploits this conditioning in the ambitious hope that playing a good game of Simon Says will land them in the editor’s chair that saddens me most. Maybe the distinctions they need to make are between the spoken and unspoken sentiments of common Iraqis. These long-suffering souls may not yet dare to utter, or give themselves the luxury to feel, any gratitude for the American sacrifice, but they can’t help but be in awe of it. Young men who leave paradise to fight in a sweltering, dust-choked inferno for the greater good of everyone. There must be something to it. There is. Freedom. Look it up, Simon.
“Refuses to draw fine distinctions between Sunni, Shiite, Baathist, secular, local or global strands of terrorism. Instead he lumps them together as an alliance of fascists, intent on using murder to impose their values, which must be confronted with an equally tenacious alliance against terrorism.”
The quoted words are from Bret Stephens’ editorial in the WSJ, as seen in the above comment where the quotation marks are absent. They were lost in transit somehow, but appear in my original draft. My apologies.
This is 111 more people than killed on September 11, 2001
This is 111 more people than killed on September 11, 2001