Reaching the 4,000 Milestone

[minnesota_liberal]

Each death in this stupid war is tragic, Iraqi, American and other "coalition" participants alike. And I regret that number-crunching such as this and (especially) speculating on the impact of certain milestones trivializes those deaths.

That said, milestones matter. And this one could be significant.

At the rate of 2.67 American troop deaths per day (the August pace as of today), we will reach 4,000 on December 8, in the midst of Hanukkah and a week into the Christmas advent calendar.

The impact of reaching that figure during this sensitive time of year could be significant. It's possible that protesters could grow in number and be sufficiently visible/vocal that opposition to the war/occupation would finally reach a critical point.

If the Repubs sense a threat to their policies or political influence (the only things that really matter), you can bet that they'll do whatever it takes to avoid this scenario. Postponing this milestone until after Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa would require a reduction in the troop deaths to a rate lower than it's been for over a year.

Will Bush put the "Surge" on hold and order his troops to hunker down for entirely political reasons?

If we hit 4,000 during the holidays, will citizens be too busy scrounging around for deals at Walmart to notice?

What do you think?

[BOSSHOG]

1. I think its a sure bet that tony snow or another bush slut

will step to the podium and tell the world that IT IS JUST A NUMBER. The pure unadulterated conservative compassion will just ooze from the president's spokeshuman.

[AndyA]

2. Yes, we will be reminded by the Bush Administration that the true meaning of the Holidays

must be observed: shop, shop, shop til you drop. Run up those credit cards to the limit (if you haven't already).

The 4,000 is just a number. Just a comma in time. The true meaning of Christmas is going into debt, partying with your friends, and being mindful of the season: making sure no gay people have rights.

That is all.

[minnesota_liberal]

4. And also "They're Playing Politics With Our War Dead"

The spin and hypocrisy are incredible.

[The Blue Flower]

3. By then we'll be at war with Iran n/t

[minnesota_liberal]

5. 9/7 Update: Projecting 4,000 on December 10

So far the September pace is almost that of August. The latest number is 3,760 and we're still on track to reach 4,000 in the midst of the holiday season.