Thursday, 20 of June of 2013

Archives from day » 04, October 2007

IRAQ BODY COUNT – ONGOING – 10/4/07

October 4, 2007 – Thursday

1650 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3808
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 28009

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 74689
(MAXIMUM): 81391
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $457,034,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE


1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (345 votes, average: 2.86 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

No Blank Check From Barack Obama

When has Hillary Clinton ever come close to taking this kind of principled stand? The answer is sadly clear. She hasn't. When America needed strong leaders, Barack Obama was strong. Hillary Clinton was weak, and made the easy choice instead of the choice that was right for America. My choice for President is Barack Obama.

I’ve made my choice for the 2008 presidential election. I’m voting for Barack Obama for President!

What tipped it for me was this section of a speech that Barack Obama made two days ago:

“Some seek to rewrite history. They argue that they weren’t really voting for war, they were voting for inspectors, or for diplomacy. But the Congress, the Administration, the media, and the American people all understood what we were debating in the fall of 2002. This was a vote about whether or not to go to war. That’s the truth as we all understood it then, and as we need to understand it now. And we need to ask those who voted for the war: how can you give the President a blank check and then act surprised when he cashes it?”

It’s really a plain and simple moral choice between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton did what Barack Obama describes above. She wrote a blank check for Bush to go to war, and now she’s acting all outraged that Bush actually used the powers she gave him.

Barack Obama stood up and opposed the Iraq War when it counted, starting back in 2002. Read Barack Obama’s 2002 antiwar speech. He closed that speech with the following challenge to George W. Bush:

“You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn’t simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair. The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not — we will not — travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.”

When has Hillary Clinton ever come close to taking this kind of principled stand? The answer is sadly clear. She hasn’t.

When America needed strong leaders, Barack Obama was strong. Hillary Clinton was weak, and made the easy choice instead of the choice that was right for America.

My choice for President is Barack Obama.

Now, it’s time for a new beginning for America. Read Barack Obama’s new speech from earlier this week.


2 comments

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (367 votes, average: 2.72 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths

From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths

By JAMES GLANZ and ALISSA J. RUBIN

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/world/middleeast/03firefight.html?_r=2&bl&ex=1191556800&en=2794af83a6d6c99c&ei=5087&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

BAGHDAD, Oct. 2 — It started out as a family errand: Ahmed Haithem Ahmed was driving his mother, Mohassin, to pick up his father from the hospital where he worked as a pathologist. As they approached Nisour Square at midday on Sept. 16, they did not know that a bomb had gone off nearby or that a convoy of four armored vehicles carrying Blackwater guards armed with automatic rifles was approaching.

RED DAVE


1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (382 votes, average: 2.93 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...