 Nico Pitney | Huffington Post |
As most of you have heard by now, America reached a tragic milestone yesterday when the 4000th U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq. Less well publicized is the fact that 97% of American casualties have occurred since President Bush declared “mission accomplished,” and that the 4000 mark was hit after a two-week surge in violence which saw the deaths of 25 American servicemen… the highest two-week death toll since last summer.
4000. 97. 25. In the abstract, they’re just numbers, but to the family and friends of the dead and wounded, each increment represents a personal tragedy.
But there’s another number that offers a glimmer of hope. 33 Democratic challengers have now signed on to the Responsible Plan to end the war in Iraq that Darcy Burner introduced last week in Washington D.C., and the momentum seems to be building day by day. 33 candidates, working outside the purview of the Beltway establishment, have come together to offer a comprehensive legislative framework for leaving Iraq responsibly, applying the diplomatic, political and economic surge necessary to stabilize the region, and reinforcing constitutional safeguards that might prevent a fiasco like this from happening again in the future.
I’m not so naive as to think that the Responsible Plan is so perfect that it can’t be improved upon, or that it will likely be approved by Congress as is, in toto. But it represents a genuine grassroots and grasstips effort to change the conversation on national security and move us toward a responsible end to this disastrous occupation. While Dave Reichert continues to wait to see if the surge is successful before considering changing course, Burner is leading an effort to address the real-world reality enunciated by Gen. David Petraeus: “There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq.”
33 fellow challengers have now joined Burner in her efforts. And counting.
I wonder where Reichert stands on our relations with Venezuela, Caba, Nigeria?
Does he even know about the crisis in Nigeria?
1 Maybe he thinks they’re all training al Queda.
Interesting that the picture shows Bush and McCain.
Like no Dems whatsoever have had anything to do with supporting this war.
Oh wait……they voted for it before they voted against it.
Well that just changes everything.
Never mind…………….
Ah More democrats using republican soldiers in their anti war parade. Geee I wonder where I have seen this before?? roof roof.
@3
The difference is that the Democrats who supported this war aren’t still smiling about it.
@5
Joe might be .
Lieberman that is, not Biden
@3 “Sam Adams”
A repub taking the name of one of the leftmost radicals in US history! Fascinaitng!!!
You do know that Sam, if he were laive today, would likley be an ex weatherman?
“Mission Accomplished”
“We’ll be greeted as liberators”
“We know where the WMD are located”
One of the things you don’t hear about so often is the fact that a lot more soldiers are wounded than killed. Certainly it’s a testament to our medical medical corps and body armor that a lot of soldiers who would have been killed during the Vietnam war are only “wounded” now. But the Pentagon hasn’t been releasing figures for the wounded, only the killed. So keep in mind that for every soldier killed, there are a lot more in Walter Reed or other facility recovering from fairly serious injuries, including loss of limbs and brain injuries.
Lee said:
“The difference is that the Democrats who supported this war aren’t still smiling about it.”
To which, Dave Gibney replied:
“Joe [Lieberman] might be.”
Of course…Joe isn’t a Democrat now. He is a member of the “Lieberman for Connecticut Party.”
Jane’s dog said:
If you would be so kind as to point out the two Republicans, we’ll substitute those pictures. I’m sure that you folks will be supplying us with way too many more photos for this collage.
Odd to write something both tragic and snarky, but with the latest Military Times poll showing that only 35% of active duty military approve of the President’s handling of the war, we seem to be headed towards an “All Democratic Force”.
And our fearless leader has done such a good job inspiring the troops that the Army is having to scramble just to keep mid-grade officers from leaving, and they still aren’t close to hitting their retention goals. Senior Army officials have become concerned because not enough officers are staying in to fill higher ranking spots in the future.
Ref: http://www.military.com/NewsCo.....83,00.html
3/4 of Americans are against the war.
“So!”
That’s all you need to know why the picture of Bush II and
Bush III.I mean the Third Reich.John @ 12:
I’ve heard this from members of the military long ago. It’s even greater disapporval of Bush’s handling of the war with military family members.
The Republicans will NOT win the military vote this year and they certainly will get hammered by military family members.
What do you expect? 4,000 KIA 30,000 WIA, stop loss, 15 month combat deployment with 12 months or less rest at home, PTSD, suicides at all time high. . . Republicans may vote against their own best interest when it comes to the evironment, the economy, taxes etc, but even a Republican retains the instinct of self preservation.
They will vote en masse against Republicans this fall.
12
Any second you want the active military to elect the next president I am in. Just as long as you cheating donks (Al Gore 2000..ect) don’t count the votes. The republican would win in a landslide. roof roof.
Dickweed @ 15:
Dream on, dream on. It’s all you have. Besides your bitching you’ll be doing 24/7 come November.
Blam, blam. No! No! dead dog.
Jane Balough’s Dog said:
Has anyone else noticed that when a Republican accuses Democrats of dirty tricks, it’s better than even odds that the Republicans are currently using that tactic?
http://www.gregpalast.com/mass.....-soldiers/
Really, all we need to do to figure out what the Republicans are doing to cheat in elections is to listen to what they’re accusing us of doing.
Fake voters – witness Ms. Balough’s Dog.
Election tampering – witness Ohio, Florida, Texas, etc…
Not letting Soldiers vote – witness Jacksonville.
Every time they start accusing us of anything, it should ring big alarm bells that they are currently doing that very thing.
For example, just a few years ago, the Republicans were running ads here in Washington saying that Democrats were supporting and shielding pedophiles.
Anyone heard from Mark Foley recently?
PBS’s Frontline is doing a 2 part story on Bush’s war starting tonight.
Warning to wingnuts: Don’t watch this program because it might give you a clue.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/
17
Have you ever noticed that democrats use donk web sites to back up their silly arguments. Is there anything they can tell the truth about???? Naay Any party who is more concerned about the right of the poor not to be bothered by being required to obtain a free voter ID card but yet has no problem of requiring an 80 year old woman pay taxes on $450.00 of self employment income are not to be taken seriously about voter fraud. roof roof.
Warning to wingnuts: Don’t watch this program because it might give you a clue.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/ frontline/bushswar/
03/24/2008 at 4:10 pm
Actually warning to taxpayers. More public tax money wasted on liberal drivel. The money would have been better used as toilet paper. roof roof
Bush’s war, it’s not a Bush war. Its the USA war with a voluntary Army. I would hate to see if there was a draft and see all you wingnuts start running across the border to hide.
Warning to Clueless Idiots:
Trust this woman at her word…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ton_bosnia
Doggie should get off the roof. Try a wharf instead,they’re usually not too ruff.
Will they have enough time to cover all 935 lies?
I really hope the similarities to Nam stop with regard to post war suicides. Wars, they keep on giving.
Ok, doggie. While Mr. Palast was working for (and being checked by) the BBC when he put out that story, here’s another reference for you.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu.....5410.shtml
Ever notice how when Republicans get caught trying to lie or cover up, they immediately try to impeach the source?
Of course, to Ms. Balough’s Dog, any source other than NewsMax is a “donk” site.
Keep it up, doggie. Every time you start accusing us, it’s just an indication of what the neo-cons are actually trying to do.
Vote caging???? You mean trying to prove there is non existant voters is now vote caging???? Leave it to a donk. You can’t have 110% voter turn out in a district in Jacksonville without someone trying to expose voter fraud. Geeeesh.
Hey Don Joe:
Amazingly I was saying this and you were dissing me. But I went back to his words. Interestingly how I found this today…
http://www.businessandmedia.or.....60737.aspx
Interesting. All I said was Greenspan said some stuff.
What’s really amazing: Almost as many U.S. military casualties under Clinton as under GWB. Absolutely astounding.
You may ask: Golly, what war was BJ fighting? Well, he was doing battle w/ Monica’s tonsils. But, other than that he was a dismal failure at protecting America from terrorism including (but not limited to) LETTING ALL OF THE SEPT. 11 HIGHJACKERS INTO THE U.S. That’s right. ALL OF THEM CAME IN BEFORE JAN. 20, 2001!!
Thank God (the Real One, not that phony rock-god Allah) that GWB has protected us as well as he has. The wanna-be mudlim Obama or Billary will help the ragheads w/ their ultimate ambitions.
And Thank God there are real soldiers willing to fight and die if necessary just so commie-demos from Philly can have a blog.
@3 Typical wingnut defense: “The Democrats did it too.”
No, we didn’t. You guys are unique. The Democrats who voted for the resolution, without exception, expected military force to be used as a last resort. They were, without exception, lied to by the criminal Bush regime.
Republicans love war and death, and can’t get enough of either, as long as they can make someone else fight the war and the deaths aren’t theirs.
@15 Don’t think we’ll let YOU count the votes.
@16 Personally, I think that stupid dog will leave with a whimper, not a bang. The last thing he’ll see is the veterinarian picking up the syringe and smiling at him …
@19 “Have you ever noticed that democrats use donk web sites to back up their silly arguments.”
Maybe that’s because there’s no content in wingnut websites, only a lot of self-masturbation.
I have yet to find a single useful fact in any wingnut website. What you invariably find on wingnut websites is idiocy like this:
“The earth is making more oil and gas all the time – this is not dead dinosaur because there never were any dinosaurs 5000 ft deep under salt domes. The ‘Abiotic’ oil theory is what that’s called, and the evidence is mounting that it is, in fact, the origin of crude oil on planet earth.
“If one thinks carefully about this, it’s pretty hard to imagine that trillions of dinos and plants all came together and died at once, then were covered over, so that their essential remains were not rotted away, or consumed by bacteria. Some oil deposits are estimated to be in the billions of barrels. Just try to imagine how much animal and plant life it would take to create that much crude – under just the right conditions. It puts the dino theory to a test it can’t muster.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/fo.....age=72;q=1
This insight is brought to you by the numbskulls who believe oil will last forever and only environmentalists stand between us and an inexhaustible supply of cheap gasoline.
It wasn’t a Democrat who let bin Laden go at Tora Bora.
It wasn’t a Democrat who diverted intelligence operatives and soldiers away from the people in Afghanistan who attacked this country to invade a nation that did not.
It wasn’t a Democrat who fired all of our Arabic-speaking translators because they might be gay.
It wasn’t a Democrat who told America lies about Iraq trying to obtain uranium after being warned twice by the CIA to stop saying that.
It wasn’t a Democrat who ignored UN resolutions and then bypassed the UN to illegally invade another nation.
It wasn’t a Democrat who set up a separate intel shop in the DoD to stovepipe cooked intelligence around our intel professionals to use to justify their bloody plans.
It wasn’t a Democrat who told Americans that Saddam was going to attack us with UAVs.
It wasn’t a Democrat who told (and who still tells) Americans that Saddam and al-Qaeda were working together.
It wasn’t a Democrat who lied to Americans about the costs of the war.
It wasn’t a Democrat who lied to Americans about the number of soldiers that would be needed.
It wasn’t a Democrat who for years failed to equip our soldiers with sufficient armored vehicles and body armor.
But it was the democrats who surrendered in Vietnam and provided the sustenance to terrorists around the world that if the terrorists just hung around long enough that democrats would surrender.
Sure enough, it took about 2 days.
What is “sufficient” body armor?
Only a racist (which is redundant for “democrat”: Putting everybody into groups) would believe the arab mudlims are static thinkers and will not scale their explosives accordingly.
They could all be driving tanks and the mudlims would ramp up the size of their IEDs.
BTW, how many resolutions did the UN pass telling Saddam the sh!t was gonna hit the fan? 15?
Only the democrat thinks that warnings are all that should ever be given. Real Americans demand action.
BTW, Al Qaeda is Sunni. Just like Saddam was.
BTW, dozens of nations went into Iraq. Not just us.
The question must be asked: Do democrats prefer to live in mudlim slavery than the freedoms that our soldiers have given us?
It is the soldier who guarantees our constitutional rights through their sacrifices, not the democrats.
US commander in Iraq blames Iran for Green Zone bombings.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....dgreenzone
Wow. Big surprise. The mudlims hate us.
Almost as much as the democrats hate freedom.
cmiklich@38
The Coalition of the willing. Supplied a whole 2% of the forces. Oh gee, how could we forget.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....he_willing
Not too far off topic because it does show the utter selfishness of democrats: http://elections.foxnews.com/2.....m-in-2006/
Wow. $1.67 million made. Only 4 % given to charity. Wow. How contemptuous of their fellow Americans or fellow man. Wow. How greedy.
GW Bush consistently gives 10% to charity. As did Reagan. Truly good men.
This goes along w/ GWB living in a ‘greener” home than ALGORE. Face it: Democrats are hypocrites. And nothing else.