"Troops Home Now." Three little words, but honestly, the way so many elected officials and members of the mainstream press are acting, you'd think we were asking for the letterman's jacket and class ring.
Apparently, it's still duck-and-cover time for the timid. Maybe they're under some mistaken belief that things are going wonderfully?
Insurgent attacks Sunday in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Baquba, and Basra killed more than two dozen police and civilians, local officials told CNN.
The deadliest attack came in the southern city of Basra, where insurgents kidnapped and killed 13 police academy employees, interior ministry spokesman Gen. Abdul Karin Khalaf said.
The gunmen nabbed the employees as they left work Sunday afternoon, he said.
Their bodies were later discovered in a nearby area, the spokesman said.
In Baghdad, a string of attacks killed nine people, most of them Sunni pilgrims returning from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a Baghdad emergency police official said.
Gunmen attacked two buses carrying the pilgrims near Mohammed Sakran cemetery in northern Baghdad, killing one and kidnapping six others, the official said. The bodies of the six were later found dumped near a hospital not too far from the cemetery, the official said.
CNN goes on to report that the puppet of the occupation, Nouri al-Maliki, was the target of an attack in Baghdad -- in Baghdad! -- and that one guard in his convey was injured.
Three little words.
Art Jester, of The Lexington Herald-Leader (of Kentucky), reports that John Brady Kiesling, a US diplomate in the US Foreign Service from 1983 until 2003, has stated, the illegal war is a failure because "we, as outsiders, were not legitimate to the Iraqis."
An illegal war built on lies that's cost the lives of over 655,000 Iraqis, 2812 American troops, 120 Brittish troops, and 119 "other" troops. But three little words are just too difficult to say.
If the illegal war continues, at what point do the fatalities start to matter? What's the magic number?
Don't ask Bully Boy because he can't even get the number of US troop fatalities correct. Not that many bothered to tell you that. Here's how that went.
Wednesday morning, Bully Boy held a press conference. It was an attempt to persuade Americans (in time for the elections!) that he really did care about the dead, that he really was following what was happening, that he was hands on, that the U.S. military is Darwinian ("adapt or die" is the new unofficial slogan as C.I. pointed out a few months back). So he spoke. He tried to play sincere. And he noted that 93 US troops had died thus far this month.
The press? Big and small, no one called him out. Worse was how many people ran with that figure in their news coverage (big and small, we were especially saddened that KPFA was among the ones running with it).
Here's the problem. Wednesday morning, the US military said 91 troops were dead. Wednesday afternoon? Same number. Wednesday evening? Same number. Wendesday night? Still 91. Iraq Coalition Casualities, which goes by press reports, had 91 up all day.
In real time, the "Iraq Snapshot" for Wednesday pointed that out, pointed out that Bully Boy, while attempting to prove he cared, didn't even have the numbers right. Thursday morning, C.I. again pointed it out in "Bully Boy doesn't know the number of US fatalities but timid media can't tell you that." From that:
Bully Boy's never been concerned about Iraqi fatalities. He is, however, attempting to switch the debate by acting as though he's concerned about the 'toll' it's taken on 'all of us' (which, in his mind, translates as American voters). And to show his 'concern,' he tosses out a number of Americans troops who died this month in the Iraq war. The number is incorrect. That does matter.
The press covering for him (apparently the press is all press, big and small)? That's shameful.
The count was 91 until the US military announced the five today. Bully Boy doesn't announce the count. If you have a loved one serving in Iraq and you heard '93,' chances are (unlike the news media) you knew the count, you knew the number. Your first thought was, "Two more?" And your second thought was wondering if it was your loved one? If that was your story, you spent Wednesday trying to find out details.
Bully Boy got the count wrong. While pretending that he cares about American troops who have died while serving in his illegal war, he couldn't even be bothered with getting the number right and our media, big and small, seems too scared to tell the American people that fact.
Exactly correct. And with all the attempts by the media to election-ize every topic, you might have thought at least one commentator could have noted that. But it didn't happen. It may have happened over the weekend. (We've been too busy with Blogger/Blogspot problems while turning out this edition to notice.)
Bully Boy doesn't care. When the count was 91 he announced 93. The press didn't call him on it. Maybe they don't follow the numbers, maybe they just don't give a damn. But someone should have caught it and no one, NO ONE, in small media should have run with his "93" count.
A visitor e-mailed to The Common Ills Thursday evening to tell C.I. that of course Bully Boy hears of each death and that's why he noted "93." He knew the deaths the military would be announcing on Thursday (the following day). That e-mail makes us all laugh. But let's enter the world of fantasy for a moment and pretend it's accurate. Okay, so Bully Boy knows there are two more deaths when he gives his speech? Why didn't the military announce it? And picture yourself as someone who follows the count, unlike the media, with someone you know serving in Iraq. You're checking each day to make sure the person you care about is still alive. When Bully Boy announced 93 Wednesday morning, you had to wait until Thursday morning before there were any details released by the US military.
The military follows a policy on announcing deaths. They announce where it happened and with whom the troop was serving. They don't announce the name. They do that only after the family has been contacted. They do that out of respect for the family. If, which we don't believe for a minute, Bully Boy knew of two additional deaths Wednesday morning (that wouldn't be noted by the US military until Thursday morning), it wasn't his place to include in the count and doing so once again shows a lack of respect for those he (and he alone) has put in harm's way.
Troops Home Now.
Three words. Not surprising so few in official-dom can't say them when big and small media couldn't even tell you that Bully Boy, while trying to look caring and involved, didn't even know how many American troops had died this month in his illegal war.