You call this a milestone?

You Call this a Milestone?

The AP says that the death toll in Iraq has now surpassed the number lost in the 9/11 Attack. The right side bloggers are aghast! How can these anti-Americans even equate the two! Those on the left can’t understand why not, saying that the Administration has been tying Saddam and Iraq to the 9/11 attacks ever since 9/12!

The Righties scream “Media Bias” while the lefties yell ”how many more deaths?”. Some of the blogs still link Saddam to terrorism and so Iraq is naturally linked to 9/11 through the all encompassing and mysteriously omnipresent “War On Terror”. They say things like, “what if we would not have fought back” while the other side asks “why we are fighting back against the wrong nation”.

Let’s put it into perspective.

First, when one considers the approximately 150 to 250 private contract warriors that have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the conflict, the initial number was surpassed some time ago. If those same numbers were included the 3,000 milestone would already have been surpassed. If one were to consider the 40 to 80 thousand Iraqis killed since 9/11, the total was surpassed long, long ago.

If one were to consider that modern American warfare includes a quotient of roughly 7 wounds to each death, since they can now save many people who would have perished with similar injuries in past wars, many lives have been saved while at the same time many limbs, much sight, and much mental capacity has been lost. The official count of wounds in Iraq is over 22,000. That is a lot of lives horribly changed forever for a fight that was ill conceived, poorly executed, and is deteriorating quickly!

And lets not forget the monetary costs. Or better yet let’s just consider the monetary costs of caring for those brave wounded souls in the future.. The data is out there. Take a look.

But if one wants to look at a milestone, your computer is as far as you need to go. It might take a little looking but it’s there and the answer is one.

One war that we were pushed into for all the wrong reasons. It’s the same number, one, of previous wars that we did not learn important lessons from (Vietnam), namely when to stop risking lives to salvage the unsalvageable. It’s the same number, one, of wars that we were pushed into, by people with their own agenda, namely to increase the security of Israel.

That number is exceeded by the number of countries, two, Syria and Iran, who are contributing to the chaos just so that the American Military is tied down in Iraq instead of in their countries.

But the biggest most amazingly crazy number is the number of people who still want to blindly stay the course and call everyone else anti-American.

Max Practical

The Iraq Study Group Report

Sooo. The Iraq Study Group Report is in and the Presidents new plan is to .. stay the course.. He chooses to ignore the parts of the report he doesn't like, which is most of it, although the Study Group, the American public, The Congress, and most of the world thinks there is a dire need for an immediate change of course in Iraq.

The Report also touches on the fact that the reason Iran is supporting the insurgency is to keep American forces busy, thus protecting themselves, and their nuclear ambitions, from American intervention. This could be a direct result of our Presidents penchant for pursuing Regime change as a standard doctrine.

It's becoming clear that our President and Secretary of State, are themselves the biggest obstacles to resolution of this costly Iraq War. Once this President is out of power we can begin to recover our troops and our credibility as a world leader. We could then begin to enlist the support of other Middle East countries toward achieving stability in Iraq. It is also apparent that our President needs to show a little less blind pride for his legacy and a little more understanding and acceptance of the greater Middle East Picture. Only then, or when there is a New President, will we begin to climb out of the mire in Iraq.

Media Bias, Hidden Agenda or just Different?

It would seem that, at some point, the mainstream liberal media would come out of the closet. For years the right hand side of our national political discourse has been trying to frame and label and define everyone outside the right as typical “liberals”. In reality everyone outside that narrow political gender includes all manner of backgrounds and views and persuasions. That’s the difference. The rest of us are all, well different. You can call me a liberal if you want but I’m a control the damn borders liberal. I’m also a pro death penalty liberal and I’m a strong military liberal but I don’t think we should waist more billions on a missile shield that will only cause the Russians or Chinese to make a thousand more missiles and decoys to easily overwhelm the system.

You can call me a liberal but you should add that I’m a victims rights liberal. I’m more worried about victims getting a fair shake than criminals getting cable. I also think prisons shouldn’t be criminal colleges and criminals shouldn’t be subject to rape. Those that are redeemable should be taught how to succeed outside a life of crime. I really don’t want to waste a cell on the occasional pot smoker when that space could be used for violent people. That’s who needs to be contained and kept from innocent people, not Maynard G. Crebbs.

The mainstream media isn’t considered conservative because, like most of the population, their views span the whole spectrum of current human opinion. Nobody likes abortions, but a great many people would at the same time, not expect the government to tell a woman what she must to do with her body.

There are lots of people who don’t want the government to take everyone’s guns but who also feel, at the same time, that there are too many gun deaths in this country and that we must figure out some sort of sensible regulation. Some have said that gun owners should first have to pass a not crazy test but then there are still many who feel that humans are too weak to hold the power of life and death in their hands.

The point is that while the Right likes to paint everyone else with one broad brush the rest of us are actually all very different. This doesn’t help the Democrats though. In fact this often translates into an inability to get enough people to agree to a common approach or even a common cause. In the last several elections this propensity for disarray has helped the Republicans. Democrats may be unafraid of trying to understand other views and we don’t need to wait for the radio heads or politicians to tell us how to think but we would be better organized if we did. The main stream media should just come out and say that, yes, they may lean toward the liberal but only so far as they reflect the general population. They also aren’t bound to following any party line or talking points. Real Democracy is messy and chaotic and full of debate but if you can’t handle other viewpoints, move to Russia.

foleyosis

So far we’ve heard a wide range of excuses for Rep Foleys actions from the Republican Leadership. We’ve heard he may not have broken any laws, and that Dennis Hastert might have heard about it in 2005 but probably not sooner and plus he’s a busy guy and might have heard about it but maybe he thought it was taken care of. We now here that Rep. Hastert’s chief of staff, Scott Palmer, may or may not have met with Rep. Foley at the urging of Foley’s one time chief of staff, Kirk Fordham. There’s lot’s of talk but as yet nobody is telling the right wings in the country what to think. This could be a problem.

We’ve heard that the poor Mr. Foley was just flirting, as creepy as that sounds and alternately that he was under the influence of alcohol and may have been accosted as a child by a trusted member of the clergy. We’ve even heard that the Republican Leadership may have not wanted to go too far at castigating Mr. Foley’s behavior for fear of being labeled gay bashers.
Oh. He was just being gay. But of course he can’t come out and say that because Real Republicans know that God frowns on that kind of behavior.

Someone’s going to have to step up to the plate and tell the Right what to think. They can’t just decide for themselves.

Some have taken a small plunge and declared that "This guy should have been kept from hitting on American children". A few have even said that the Republican Leadership should have conducted an investigation. No one has come out and said "America, we hoped this problem would go away but it has now bitten us in the ass on election eve". In fact the only thing they’ve been told is that the damn Democrats are piling on and stoking the story.

We’ve heard that there have been Democrats who crossed the line but the Liberal Media didn’t pursue those stories nearly as fervently as the Foley story. We’ve been told the FBI is looking into whether any laws have been broken but nowhere is the Republican Leadership offering any actual views or even any real talking points.

Come on guys. Go with something. Maybe it’s the anything goes, no morals, liberal society we live in that’s at fault? Perhaps Congressional Rules need to be updated like when the Abromoff scandal erupted? Hey, at least blame President or Senator Clinton! Tell them that Rep. Foley is actually a vast Democratic conspiracy but for God's sake don't wait too long. It's can be very unnerving to have to formulate a position on their own!