U.S. military deaths in Iraq reach 3,000
Spring soldier’s death is 3,000th in Iraq
A Spring soldier whose death was announced by the military Sunday raised the tally compiled by the Associated Press of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom to at least 3,000. At the time of his death Thursday, Spc. Dustin Donica, 22, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
As human beings, we tend to measure our lives in milestones. One of the best and simplest way to mark milestones is with numbers. Right now, no number carries more meaning than 3,000- the number of American dead in Iraq. But 3,000 tells only a very small part of the story. Yes, 3,000 dead Americans is a tragedy by any definition, especially when you consider that they died in a pointless, senseless war purchased with lies and propaganda. The criminal tragedy that is the war in Iraq is so much more than just 3,000 dead. While each of the 3,000 dead represent a tragic and senseless death and the families, friends, and loved ones they’ve left behind, there are thousands more broken bodies, minds, and lives still drawing breath while they determine what to make of their lives. These heroes pay every single day for the lies and propaganda sold to us by Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © …yet the lying murderer y’all elected will no doubt escape without being called to account.
It’s difficult not to wonder if Iraqis might not have hung the wrong despot on Friday night….
Like all statistics, this one is deceptive. It does not include US troops killed in Afghanistan, that oddly forgotten war where the US still has a division engaging in active combat….
The number does not include the Coalition troops killed in Iraq. The sacrifices of the British, Italians, and others should be included.
And why ignore the seriously wounded? These brave warriors have brain damage, or spinal damage, or have lost limbs or been burned and disfigured. There are probably 8000 of them. Their sacrifice should be foregrounded. Life is not going to be easy for them, and they are not goiing to get that much help from Bush.
Indeed, why not count all the wounded? The number must be near 25000 by now.
Then there are all the Iraq Vets with post traumatic stress disorder and a myriad of other combat related mental diseases. There is alcoholism, domestic violence, divorce.
The true number of Americans and US allies who are in some sense casualties of war is in the tens of thousands.
It’s easy to focus on 3,000, because it represents a milestone, but to focus on that number alone ignores the real scope of this criminal tragedy. The war in Afghanistan could at least have initially been justified as legitimate. At least for a little while it represent the hunt for Osama bin-Laden (you remember him, don’t you??). There is still at least a division of American soldiers in Afghanistan, trying to help that fledgling democracy hold on and become something lasting and meaningful.
Iraq, however, is a much different, much sadder and infinitely more tragic story. There was no terrorist threat extant in Iraq prior to our invasion. Iraq was neither responsible for, nor involved in, 9.11. Yet, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © spread enough lies and propaganda to purchase himself the war in Iraq that he and his fellow neoCon thugs had wanted all along. What’s truly sad about this is that we’re letting him get away with it. Three thousand young Americans will never live to grow old. Three thousand young Americans died in support of a criminal conspiracy constructed on the soft sand of lies and propaganda. And we sit idly by while Congress and the Mainstream Media (and most Americans) refuse to hold Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © accountable for the deaths of those whose deaths he knowingly purchased with those lies and propaganda…not to mention those who lived, but came back irretrievably broken. What were their sacrifices for?
NOW CAN WE IMPEACH THE LYING, MURDERING BASTARD???
