Bush's illegal invasion sparks one of the worst tragedies in Iraq's history

[ProSense]

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2007/02/the_message_in_.html">The Message in the Body Count

The message is clear in attacks like this. The message is that we (the attackers) will persist until you Americans give up in disgust with the slaughter, the mindless (to you) inter-communal violence, the loss of life and limb on your side, the vast expenditures that could be spent on things like health insurance for the poor in the USA. The specific message is variously that:

We Sunni Arabs will fight before, during and after your withdrawal to end up with at least a parity of power with the Kurds and Shia Arabs. Our brothers "outside" will help us. They will tell you Americans whatever you are gullible enough to believe about their relationship to us and to the the Israelis, but they will help us. When you are gone we will fight the Shia, the Iranians, maybe the jihadis if they try to rule us, but we will fight.

The message from the Shia Arabs is that we will persist in our efforts to live in dignity and sovereignty in Iraq. We, too, have friends.

The message from the jihadis is that "God Wills It," and we will persist in His path until all submit. Death is nothing.

The message from all: Who are you Americans to tell us that our struggles are "incomprehensible?" Who are you? pl

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1839727.htm

Saturday, February 03, 2007

The Wounded

The truck bomb that killed 130 today in Iraq is said to have wounded over 300. As is the case with American casualties, we focus on the dead. We should think more, though, about the wounded. If we assume that Lancet was accurate, we're probably closing in on 700000 or so excess dead since the war began. I don't know of any estimates of the wounded, but two injured for every one killed seems plausible enough, which gets us close to a million and a half Iraqis wounded in the war and ensuing strife. That's about one in every twenty Iraqis.

Can you imagine what that does to a country? People in the US are already worrying about the long term expense of the Iraq War in terms of medical costs for veterans. Iraq likely now has 30 times the number of wounded as the US in absolute terms, and roughly 300 times as many corrected for population. Add to this the surviving injured from the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War, and you have a health care disaster of almost unimaginable proportions. How is it possible to build or manage a national health care system under such conditions? This isn't a problem that'll be gone in ten years, even if some sort of stability is achieved. The Iraqi state and its successor(s) is/are going to be caring for the wounded for the next forty years, an obligation which is going to prove onerous even for a state with oil revenue.

I don't think we've begun to grasp the extent of the disaster.

This tragedy brought to you by:

OMFG!! "My Retarded President" on YouTube.

[ProSense]

1. Bush offers Democrats olive branch on Iraq war

Bush offers Democrats olive branch on Iraq war

Sun Feb 4, 4:55 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - After US intelligence painted a grim picture of George W. Bush's plan for Iraq and a congressional rebuke loomed, the US president has sought bipartisan cooperation from Democrats on bringing the war to an end.

Gone was Bush's insistence upon being "the decider" on Iraq policy as he addressed Democrats of the House of Representatives which, like the Senate, is under Democratic control largely thanks to voter impatience with Bush's highly unpopular wartime performance.

"I put out a plan that has caused a lot of debate on Iraq," Bush said Saturday of his war strategy, about which doubts were raised by a stark review of the war situation in a report from Washington's 16 intelligence agencies on Friday.

"I listened to many members here. I listened to members of my own party. I listened to the military and came up with a plan that I genuinely believe has the best chance of succeeding," he told the Democrats meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, south of Washington.

more...

[teryang]

2. it's a two decade campaign of genocide and conquest

The oil, banking, and military industrial conquest know what they want.

[ProSense]

3. Let the

investigations begin.