Tuesday, October 31, 2006
October's Terrible Toll In Iraq - Names by Date
As I write this, it is 6:20 PM in Baghdad. Iraq Coalition Casualties web site reports that 103 soldiers have died so far in October. The list below is incomplete (pending DOD confirmation). Four of them under 20 years of age; 73 in their twenties. Ask what did they die for? What has their deaths accomplished? The WMD never existed; the Iraqi freedom turned out to be a cruel joke. Currently, we are being told that the war is against global terrorism by radical Islamics. That,too, could change. "Stay the course" has now become flexible. The soldiers keep on dying.
Peter Slevin in Washington Post, When the War Comes Home
- "COLUMBUS, Ohio
- Alone and in clusters, collars up to block the rain, thousands of people lined the streets on a gray October day in 2005 to welcome their warriors home. For 13 miles, they rose to wave, a few to salute, as the buses rolled slowly past. More than one tough Marine, homeward bound after a brutal tour in Iraq, shed a tear.
Playing the terrorist threat card; the only hand they have got. CBS News/AP: "Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday the increase of violence in Iraq is linked with efforts to influence the outcome of next week's elections in which Republicans are struggling to keep control of Congress. "It's my belief that they're very sensitive of the fact that we've got an election scheduled and they can get on the websites like anybody else," Cheney said. Well, 17 months ago the same man said about the Iraqi insurgents: "......they are in their in their last throes" (May 31, 2005). Now his message is that the insurgents want Democrats to win ! Yes, go on spreading fear.
From NPR: "All Things Considered, October 30, 2006 ยท The U.S. military can't account for hundreds of thousands of weapons purchased to arm some 325,500 Iraqi security forces by December, according to a new report. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the U.S. military would beef up Iraqi forces' training. But the new data reveals weaknesses in the arming of Iraqi security forces.Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction who provided the report to Sen. John Warner, says the Iraqi security forces lack the logistics personnel they need, including mechanics, supply clerks and medics."
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From NPR: "All Things Considered, October 30, 2006 ยท The U.S. military can't account for hundreds of thousands of weapons purchased to arm some 325,500 Iraqi security forces by December, according to a new report. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the U.S. military would beef up Iraqi forces' training. But the new data reveals weaknesses in the arming of Iraqi security forces.Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction who provided the report to Sen. John Warner, says the Iraqi security forces lack the logistics personnel they need, including mechanics, supply clerks and medics."
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Good point. Listing Iraqi civilian casualties by name cannot be done. The number, even if you take the lowest (about 45,000 according to Iraqi Body Count - http://www.iraqbodycount.org/) is numbing. A recent Johns Hopkins study reported more than half a million. I have commented about Iraqi civilians and "collateral damage" quite a few time since the war began.
President Clinton faced impeachment because of his dallyings with Monica Lewinsky. It cost the nation $40 million. Now we have a president
who took the nation to an unjustified war that resulted in deaths of many thousands. The costs could exceed one trillion. And he
still goes on creating reasons for the war. Perhaps I should stop listing the names of dead soldiers.
Thank you for writing.
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President Clinton faced impeachment because of his dallyings with Monica Lewinsky. It cost the nation $40 million. Now we have a president
who took the nation to an unjustified war that resulted in deaths of many thousands. The costs could exceed one trillion. And he
still goes on creating reasons for the war. Perhaps I should stop listing the names of dead soldiers.
Thank you for writing.
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