U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Passes 3,500
BAGHDAD ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ The four-year U.S. military death toll in Iraq passed 3,500 after a soldier was reported killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. A British soldier was also shot to death Thursday in southern Iraq, as Western forces find themselves increasingly vulnerable under a new strategy to take the fight to the enemy…. The mounting U.S. casualties, most by makeshift bombs placed in potholes on roads or in fields where troops conduct foot patrols, come as American troops work with Iraqi forces on the streets and in remote outposts as part of a joint crackdown on sectarian violence.
More than four years have passed since the beginning of the war in Iraq, and now more than 3,500 young Americans have paid the price for…well, I’m not certain for what. It would be nice to be able to think that the sacrifice made by these brave souls was actually for a cause that has some meaning. It would be nice, certainly, but it would also be far wrong. Have the deaths of these young Americans made America a safer place? Have they reduced the likelihood of terrorist attacks upon the American Homeland? Have they made America a stronger and more secure democracy?
If you think the answers to those questions is “yes”, you likely long ago surrendered your ability to think critically and independently. You’ve also forfeited the lion’s share of your humanity. Four years later, and we’re now no closer to “victory”, whatever the Hell THAT means. American soldiers and marines have become little more than IED fodder, targets of an enemy they can neither see nor fight. Yet Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © , his fellow neoCons, and Congressional Republicans continue to insist that victory is just around the corner. Right; all we have to do is to keep believing and continue feeding our children into the meatgrinder, and…Voila!!…before you know it, victory will be attained and terrorism defeated.
Man, I can hardly wait for the surrender ceremony on the carrier deck of the USS Missouri….
