Go Back to the B3 Home Page
Complaints, compliments, arguments? Email me.
[<< "New Toys!!"] [Archive Index] [>>"Shame."]
06/28/2003 Archived Entry: "Revisiting the casualty figures."
Revisiting the casualty figures.
The point that I tried - and failed - to make yesterday regarding US military deaths in Iraq is that seemingly overnight, the US media has changed the way they're reporting the numbers.
Up until a couple of days ago, news agencies and dailies were reporting 'X' number of Americans killed in Iraq since hostilities were declared over. Once that number climbed above 50, they started only reporting deaths as a result of hostile action. That explains the 'at least 18' quote from yesterday's Washington Post. With the crucial qualifier regarding 'hostile action,' the number of dead is back down below 20 (or at least it was - another soldier was killed and four wounded this morning, and those 2 soldiers who went missing with their Humvee late Thursday have been found dead).
There is anecdotal evidence that Walter Reed Army Hospital is swimming in casualties. From Atrios' comments section: 'The floodgates opened. It turns out her daughter is a nurse at Walter Reed. She told us that the hospital is overflowing with wounded GI's brought in every day from Iraq and Afghanistan, that they are seriously understaffed, that nurses are doing the work of doctors."
I lived through the Viet Nam era, and I have to say that the duplicity that Nixon and his minions foisted upon the American people is small potatoes compared to this thuggish administration. These guys are hundreds of times more cynical than Haldeman and Ehrlichman ever were, and that is going some.
The media had better start calling the administration on this. This country deserves better than 'Mission: Accomplished' when our young are falling at the rate of better than one per day.
Replies: 2 people speak up
I'm shit-shocked that any reasonable observer would be surprised at this inexorable attrition of US servicemen.
Don't get me wrong, I love my country and our soldiers, but if you were Saddam or a Baathist leader you knew that the Iraqi armed forces didn't have a snowball's chance in hell against our mighty legions. So letting the US take the country would allow your remaining forces to get "up close and personal." An RPG round here, a thrown grenade there, an occasional landmine, then you melt back into the population.
I'm wondering how many flag-draped bodybags it'll take before our sedated, amnesiac fellow citizens wake up. Sadly, I suspect it will take many, many body bags. And wouldn't it be a bitch if those bodybags are manufactured by a wholely-owned subsidiary of Halliburton?
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 06/28/2003 10:16 PM NY
Drip... drip... drip...
I can hear the chorus for the next week: Mission ACCOMPLISHED? What are you snorting NOW, pResident Moron?
In fact, I think I need to start that faucet dripping over at the Funny Farm. Yeah, that's the ticket...
Posted by (: Tom :) @ 06/28/2003 10:55 PM NY
