February 2007 U.S. fatalities in Iraq- so far!
Call it the wear factor, but because of the repeated sound on 24/7 news on the reporting of U.S. fatalities in Iraq, I have become numb to the reporting but realize that for every soldier who has lost their lives in this war of choice, a family will never be the same again. It is difficult to think about this in such a way to try to make it personal. The 24/7 news takes that sensitivity from us and gets us used to hearing this steady stream of death and destruction. It is difficult to gauge if the war is going better now than 3 years ago, as there seems to be less destruction this month, as it has been reported that many in Iraq to have gone underground and blended into their local population, according to 24/7 reporting. What seems lost is the fact that IT IS THE LOCAL POPULATION CAUSING ALL THIS DEATH AND DESTRUCTION BECAUSE OF OUR PRESENCE!
Here's the data on U.S fatalities for the first 20 days of this month compared to the number of total fatalities in February 2005 and 2006 for comparison. I have my own thoughts about this data but you draw your own conclusions. Comments?
February 2005 fatalities 58
February 2006 fatalities 55
February month to date 2007 fatalities 60, with still 8 days to go! When you look closely at the picture of the caskets remember you are only seeing about 18 caskets. Imagine what 3,144 caskets represent and how many families and friends are personally affected by the loss. Our leaders don't want you to see those caskets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as you did during the Vietnam War as they know if you do it will turn you against this war, make your blood boil in your veins and cause you to take up the cause to end this war of Bush and Cheney's choice.
UPDATE: February 25, 2007
The U.S. death toll has now reached 72 with 3 days remaining in the shortest month of the year.
UPDATE 3/2/07 Final numbers for February show 80 U.S. Fatalities. See newer post above titled,
"U.S. fatalities at 3-year high for this period"
posted by Charles Amico at 6:33 AM
2 Comments:
This is an old post from my blog, but I think it addresses my frustration with your ignorance of the situation.
Pleasure I Don't Have
I am one pissed off Iraq War Vet!
c.s., I read your previous post and do understand form what you wrote how you may feel. My intention was not to get Veterans angry at what I write. But having said that, if I can help to get even one home with their family earlier, then I would be indeed very happy.
You state in your Blog, How can we not follow this through as so much sacrifice has already been made? My answer is that sometimes when a bad decision has been made it is best to cut your losses and stop. If I followed your line of thinking, one should stay at the Craps table in Vegas after losing a significant amount of money, because we had invested so much of our treasure. This is poor logic and I am afraid it may be the logic of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney, as the choice to stay just increases the losses and heads us to bankruptcy.
I wish you well, I admire your wanting to help others, but there are certainly better ways to do that and preserve you as well. Your family deserves it, your friends deserve it and your country deserves that. That is why JFK founded the Peace Corps., as a means to help others, not through war, but through peace.
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