Death Toll Surpasses 9-11. So What?

Hey folks,

Looks like the big news of the day, this, the day after Christmas seems to be the death toll in Iraq. Seems it has now surpassed 9-11. I mean it folks, it’s all over the place. My question is, So what?

Let’s look at the news, shall we?

Reuters
By Ibon Villelabeitia 55 minutes ago

The deaths of six more American soldiers in Iraq pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 2,978 -- five more than the number killed in the September 11 attacks -- as bombs killed more than 20 people in Baghdad on Tuesday.


At least 89 U.S. soldiers have died so far this month, making it the deadliest this year after October's toll of 106, and adding pressure on President George W. Bush to find a strategy to extricate 135,000 U.S. troops from the messy war.


Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein, which Bush said was an integral part of the "war on terror" following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.


U.S. officials say 2,973 people were killed in those attacks, excluding the 19 hijackers."

AFP {French version of the AP}

The number of American fatalities in Iraq have surpassed the death toll for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, shining the spotlight on US policy in the war-wracked country.

Another 20 Iraqis were killed in attacks hammering Baghdad on Tuesday, 15 of them in a triple car bombing, amid unprecedented levels of violence in a conflict that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands.


The macabre US milestone was marked, according to an AFP count, by the deaths of three soldiers in a bomb attack northwest of Baghdad on Tuesday, 24 hours after another four troops were killed on Christmas Day.

Following the latest deaths, the AFP count was 18 higher than the Defence Department's tally, last updated at 1500 GMT Friday. At least seven civilians are included in the toll, according to the military's numbers."

Now the AFP, says,

"The landmark American death toll, emerging over the Christmas holiday season, represents another political blow for Bush, who earlier this month was forced to admit for the first time that the US was not winning in Iraq.

"The problem is the larger issue of US policy in Iraq, and recent polls that show that President Bush has very, very little political capital left on Iraq," said Eric Davis, professor of political science at Middlebury College, Vermont."

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has also instructed the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, to work out specifics of a plan to help restore security in Baghdad with Iraqis in the lead and US forces in a supporting role."

Now Eric Davis is not only a professor of political science, but also a columnist. From what I see, he is also anti-Bush, and anti-war. So him pointing out that the death toll surpasses 9-11 gives Bush bad poll numbers means NOTHING. Besides, you also have to understand that President Bush doesn’t care about polls, popularity, or anything else besides winning the war.

I understand that this is a hard concept for some of the LWL and the Mass Media to grasp. This is what they ARE all about. They LIVE for popularity. They MUST have good poll numbers. So when they see bad ones for the Republicans, or Bush, they think this is a bad thing. They glory in pointing it out. But all President Bush cares about is protecting this country and winning the war. He doesn’t care if there are some who do not want him too.

Then we go to the AP,

"By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago

At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American toll beyond the number of victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."

Break,

"The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 — five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The milestone came with military announcement that three soldiers had been killed Monday. Three more service members were killed Tuesday in roadside bombings near Baghdad, the military said.

President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States' post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad. Going on offense against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaida and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush has said."

Yes. We fight them there, now, or here later. It really IS just that simple.

"We fully expect more attacks on our bases and on Basra stations, but that's nothing out of the ordinary," Maj. Charlie Burbridge, a military spokesman, said Tuesday. "But this is part of a long-term rehabilitation of the Iraqi police service, to make it more effective and more accountable, and ultimately provide better security for the people of Basra."

Uhm, yup. We are in a WAR. The whole point is to kill more of them than they kill of you. As I keep saying. War IS kill people and break stuff.

AFP had this article about the families of 9-11 and how they felt about this milestone.


"by James Hossack1 hour, 15 minutes ago

The families of the September 11 victims gave a mixed reaction to the US military toll in Iraq passing the number of people who died in the attacks on New York and Washington five years ago.

For some, the grim milestone proved that the "war on terror" was a war that needed to be fought and won. Others said the chilling human toll only reopened old wounds, and raised questions about why troops were in Iraq at all.

Families of the 2,973 people killed in the attacks were divided about going to war in the first place and seemed similarly split over the significance of the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

STOP!!! WAIT a second. I just read this again. Notice this. They start out saying the families are split. This gives the impression that they will give both sides. But if you read the WHOLE story, you see that they talk to Adele Welty, who’s son was killed on 9-11. Five paragraphs. She said,

"The more carnage that we experience from the standpoint of our military as well as the civilian casualties in Iraq, the more absurd the whole concept of this war appears to me," she said.

"I can't understand anybody supporting it now."


"The more casualties I hear about, the more horrible the entire enterprise appears to me and every time I see pictures on the news of young men and women in the military being killed, my first thought is of their families.

"I lost my son and I know what each mother experiences," she said.

Then for EIGHT paragraphs they talk about and to Eva Rupp, whose stepsister was killed when Flight 93, hijacked by Al-Qaeda members, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania on September 11.

"My stepsister was only 20 years old when she died on one of the hijacked planes and the grief that my parents and I went though was unbearable.


"I can only imagine that the grief experienced by the families of each of our servicemen and women is just as painful and will haunt them for the rest of their lives, just as our loss haunts us," she said.

She said each time she heard of a US death in Iraq, her thoughts turned to her stepsister.

"Most of the young men and women who die overseas are around my stepsister's age, and I can't help but seeing her face in their faces and feeling a great sadness when I think of the pain their loss has caused their loved ones."

She added that focusing only on the US casualties failed to show the true extent of the human losses in Iraq.

"The number of people lost in Iraq greatly exceeds those lost on 9/11 if we count all of the Iraqi civilians who have been killed.

"Having a different religion or nationality certainly does not make a loss less tragic or grief any less significant," she added.

Clearly anti-war rhetoric.

Then they talk to one guy, Tim Sumner, who IS one of the bad guys as far as Liberal go. He’s a former Drill Sergeant. Of COURSE he is for the war. Right? Just seven paragraphs?

"But Tim Sumner, 53, a former US Army drill sergeant whose firefighter brother-in-law was killed in the World Trade Center said that while the cost of fighting the "war on terror" might be high, it was a price worth paying.

"Any one life lost in war is tragic, however it is also noble," he said, adding that the casualties sustained in Iraq were far smaller than those suffered historically.

"What they need to do is finish what they set out to do, otherwise we fall back and lose ground in the war on terror, fail to consolidate democracies and take them off the terrorist strongholds," he added.

Failing in the "war on terror", he said, would mean "those lives would have been given in vain and that would be tragic."

STOP!! I have been saying that exact thing. I cannot find the exact quote, but I have been saying that if we cut and run, all those lives given in the war up to that point will be rendered pointless and meaningless. I also said,

"But again, no matter who is saying it, I still say, if we are no longer in this to win it. Then we need to bring our troops home NOW. Forget about a "phased withdrawal." If we are going to cut and run, and leave them on their own, then let’s just get out." Let’s not "waste" another American life there. Let’s regroup, and wait till they come here. Right?

You would think that out of the 2,973 families, they could have included a little more info. A few more people could have commented. Don’t you think?

It’s simple folks, WHO CARES? So what? Any idea how many Americans were lost in WW2? WW1, Civil War? We have been fighting this war for a long time. We have ONLY lost 2,978? I’d say that’s actually pretty good. But that would not be Politically Correct for me to say. Would it?
Peter

Sources;
Reuters ="U.S. military deaths in Iraq pass 9/11 toll"
AFP = "US fatalities in Iraq top 9/11 toll"
AP = "U.S. toll in Iraq surpasses that of 9/11"
AFP = "September 11 families split over US toll in Iraq"