The Toll - 12/10/06 "It may even be...

With those words of Republican Senator Gordon Smith still echoing in our minds, the news out of Washington is increasingly upsetting, especially for the loved ones of our soldiers stationed in Iraq.

There are four photos attached to this posting. They are best viewed by clicking on each, to enlarge. These shots, although difficult to look at, serve to increase our awareness that our soldiers are a long way from America, in more ways than one. The realization of what they go through on a daily basis cannot help but intrude into our thoughts as we enjoy the holiday season with our families. And that is as it should be.

Last week, the Department of Defense announced the deaths of 34 military personnel in Iraq, ranging in age from 19 to 39. Eighteen were killed in Al Anbar Province which extends from west of Baghdad to the borders with Syria and Jordan, and which contains the cities of Ramada and Fallouja. A report, several weeks ago, by the Marine Corps concluded that all governing bodies had broken down within the province and authority now rested solely with the insurgents. Nevertheless, it's apparent that our soldiers continue to be placed in harms way.

The fallen heroes came from 21 states and the island of Guam. Nine states lost more than one soldier last week.

Total U.S. deaths have amounted to 2,925 in and around Iraq, as of Friday, 12/8, and 296 in and around Afghanistan, as of Wednesday, 12/6, according to the Pentagon.

Deaths in Iraq are on track to hit 3,000 by the middle of January.

Comments: 9

Cammy S. Dec 10, 2006, 7:28pm EST

Here's a pic that you forgot to include, David.

http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224743976688

Not that it makes any difference...

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Olga M. Dec 10, 2006, 7:47pm EST

Cammy, that is a touching picture, and I am glad to see the girl be comforted, but if we hadn't invaded them for greedy purposes there wouldn't BE any insurgents. Insurgents are resistors who don't want their territory snatched from them. First we harm, and then we get accolades for comforting those that we harm?

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Sam C. Dec 10, 2006, 7:56pm EST

Yes, rest assured the oil companies are making record profits, we have tax breaks for the wealthy and globlal warming is junk science. God is on the side of American imperialism, stock market is blazing and that nasty pervert Clinton is not seducing young innocents in the White House. All is well. What's 3000 flag draped coffins compared to that?

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Billy Davis Dec 10, 2006, 8:01pm EST

All these groups "defending" themselves. Yet if all sides were only defending themselves, then who is on the offence?

I fear that our Department of Defense is all too often a Department of Offence.

Yes there is "a time to kill" and "a time for war" yet all too often we focus on these options in Ecclesiastes 3 and forget "a time to heal" and "a time for peace." I fear it was a time for war against AlQuida and in Iraq it was not. For they were two different conflicts, with two different threats, with two different explanations, and two differerent methodologies should have been applied.

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Patrick T. Dec 10, 2006, 8:15pm EST

Our troops are not failing us, it is the leadership that has failed them. Of course those leaders won't admit it because that would open the door to their critics. So to the leaders they must protect themselves First. That is criminal. This guy is worse than Nixon. Worse that Carter. He will hold the trophy for the dumbest and the most self serving president this country has ever had. But he is not alone in this. The leaders in congress on both sides of the fence who have gone along with this are just as guilty. Let the Democrats coming to power understand that they can be replaced in two years if they have not learned the lessons of the past six.

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Howard M. Dec 10, 2006, 9:16pm EST

And, of course, the inarguably hundreds of thousands of civilians killed don't get much press. Are they not human, too? There is no doubt of the criminality of this enterprise. What is mind boggling, however, is the raw, venal, and incredibly stupid prosecution. When will people stop cring tsk, tsk, and do something about what has been done to this country -- and others?

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Missy W. Dec 11, 2006, 3:02am EST

Our troops have performed beyond measure -- Rummy was totally into "metrics." Given the idiocies of the war from day one, our troops have been heroes unlike in any other war and, you know what, I've NEVER heard a single human being say otherwise. Maybe I just don't get out and about enough.

Don't know if you caught it, but CNN ran a piece on combat hospitals where they treat our soldiers and the the victims of warring factions all on the same day. A terrible image was that of a 2 or 3 yr old child who watched her parents being murdered because they were too chummy with the Americans--and then they shot her. She survived and was last seen riding away in a HumVee, and was being held and comforted by the same soldier who brought her in.

We shouldn't have gone there and it's time to get out. Both al-Hakim and Talibani are giving us a year -- on their terms -- not the IGS. We will of course have to pay to rebuild what we blew up and if the new congress has anything to say about it the dollars will go where they are supposed to go, not into the pockets of Halliburton, Bechtel and others.

Bush said maybe he will make a decision by Christmas. That would be fitting--but sooner rather than later. A trite saying, but true, the wheels of war grind so slowly.

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