It's unfortunate that one might predict an almost celebratory tone in announcements from the media and the Left that US deaths in Iraq have reached 3,000. I had to search around to find a news story that actually named the individual.
Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas, was killed Thursday by small arms fire in Baghdad, the Defense Department said. Donica was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
While neither the media nor the Left will pause to take note, there are a few other numbers we can justifiably project for ourselves on this New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 2006.
An estimated 16,692 persons were murdered nationwide in 2005, an increase of 3.4 percent from the 2004 figure.
Murder comprised 1.2 percent of the overall estimated number of violent crimes in 2005. (Based on Table 1.)
There were an estimated 5.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
Based upon the 2005 figures, approximately 46 Americans are killed within our borders every day. The Iraq War officially began on March 20, 2003 - approximately 1,375 days ago. Consequently, one can project that well over 63,000 Americans have died at the hands of other Americans since the beginning of the war.
It might do a person some good to think that our media and our Left cared just that much more about the 3,000 military deaths over the same period because they were proud members of our military ... serving our country with courage, dignity and honor. Unfortunately, given that both the media and the Left seem so quick to ignore the more than 63,000 civilian deaths which have occurred during the same time period, I don't know that I will take much comfort from what will likely be their over-coverage of this particular milestone in the Iraq War.
docweasel is right.
The chickenhawk thing is stupid (as is the "you're a traitor because you don't support this war" thing, or "you support saddam", or "you hate America"). They are all bullshit, but I fully support the chickenhawk one when faced with the others.
BTW, me and my President couldn't care less about 9/11. (Although i wasn't against having a 9/11 Commission, I didn't underfund the 9/11 Commission, and I didn't stonewall the 9/11 Commission like my President did).
Posted by: Robert | Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 03:44 PM
how about "refuse to acknowledge, mush less investigate, jamie gorelick's and bill clinton's 'wall' that kept the fbi/cia from being alerted to the activities of the 9-11 flyboys during the...you know...the *clinton administration*", just like the 9-11 commission did, robert?
since we're being all nostalgic & stuff, fondly remembering all the old times with 'you & your president', how 'bout we expand out horizons just a tad?
that ok with you? or is that too chickenhawkish?
Posted by: larry | Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 05:31 PM
larry, not to mention having Sandy "Pants" Berger go in and steal and destroy any memos or documents that might show what a lame security president Clinton was. Those documents may very well have held a 'smoking gun' showing Clinton knew full well the risks and dangers and did nothing.
And that's not even going into his failure to nab bin Laden when he had several chances to do so.
Posted by: docweasel | Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 09:02 PM
right you are, doc.
oddly, for some unknown reason, ol' robert neglected to mention that and other foibles & follies of "my" president, william bubba jefferson rodham clinton. saaaaay, did bubba 'cooperate' with the 9-11 commission? anybody know the answer to that? ("cooperation", in this case, NOT defined as "stealing and destroying relevant documents")
about as odd as ol' sgt. blood getting all silent and quiet-like-a-mouse on us, when i - a known chickenhawk puzzy - replied to his bullshit as insultingly as i could. you know, i'll bet he's probably on some top-secret stone-cold tom clancy mission somewhere! i'll bet that's it!! perhaps he'll fill us in when he gets back. ("the cold steel of my blade flashed!")("death came for the enemy with sharp pointy teeth!")
anyone else noticing the pattern here? the left-wing intellectual giants pop in to make a quick-n-dirty insult; or a bizarre, not-quite-connected-to-reality political comment and then.....run away squealing like little bitches. i don't know what a psychiatrist would make of that lack of staying power: a terrible, corrosive self-hatred? deep down they suspect they're full of shit? something like that....
Posted by: larry | Wednesday, January 03, 2007 at 12:52 AM