How many US soliders have died in Iraq? Consider this account of the US military dead and wounded in Iraq as of Sept. 3 2004 (the day after the increasingly unhinged and incredibly shrinking _resident's acceptance speech at the RNC)...
US Named Dead * -- 978
US Reported Dead ** -- 35
Total US Dead -- 1013
US milirary wounded *** **** -- 6987
US military evacuated from Iraq --
Wounded in Action ***** -- 1500
Non-Battle Injury ***** -- 4416
Disease ***** -- 7347
* Includes both hostile killed and non-hostile killed
** Reported Killed but Unidentified Pending
Notification of Next of Kin
*** Included both Wounded in Action and non-hostile
prior to 01 Apr 04
**** Includes only Wounded in Action since 01 Apr 04
***** Excludes all non-Army troops, and all troops
treated in theater
Source: www.globasecurity.org
Either 1,013 US soldiers have already died in Iraq or the actual number is getting damn close to it. And for what? The
neo-con wet dream of a Three Stooges. Furthermore,
although it is difficult to think of an even greater
obscenity, but there is an even greater obscenity: the "US mainstream news media" has quietly and pervasively stopped reporting the deaths of individual US soliders and aggregate body count for the total of US soldiers killed in this foolish military adventure...
The Emperor has no uniform...
But what's even worse is that the "US mainstream news
media" broadcast the naked man's speech without
commenting on his nakedness...Yes, they let him wrap
himself in the blood-drenched flag of this country
without ever mentioning that the death toll had either
crossed over the threshold of 1,000 or is painfully close to it?...Nor did they
mention Ben Barnes or Linda Allison ("who?" you might say, you will know their names before it is over)...Is this what
democracy looks like?
Gary Younge, Guardian: The US president, George Bush,
was transferred to the Alabama National Guard during
the Vietnam war because his drunken behaviour was a
political liability to his father in Texas, the wife
of one of his father's former confidants revealed
yesterday.
Linda Allison told the political website Salon.com
that throughout the time Mr Bush was in Alabama she
never saw him in uniform and had no idea he was
supposed to be in the National Guard.
"Georgie was raising a lot of hell in Houston, getting
in trouble and embarrassing the family and they just
really wanted to get him out of Houston." Asked if she
had ever seen him in uniform Mrs Allison said: "Good
Lord, no. I had no idea the National Guard was
involved in his life."
Support Our Troops, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1296350,00.html
George Jr sent out of Texas by father as a 'drunken
liability'
Gary Younge in New York
Friday September 3, 2004
The Guardian
The US president, George Bush, was transferred to the
Alabama National Guard during the Vietnam war because
his drunken behaviour was a political liability to his
father in Texas, the wife of one of his father's
former confidants revealed yesterday.
Linda Allison told the political website Salon.com
that throughout the time Mr Bush was in Alabama she
never saw him in uniform and had no idea he was
supposed to be in the National Guard.
"Georgie was raising a lot of hell in Houston, getting
in trouble and embarrassing the family and they just
really wanted to get him out of Houston." Asked if she
had ever seen him in uniform Mrs Allison said: "Good
Lord, no. I had no idea the National Guard was
involved in his life."
Mrs Allison is the wife of the late Jimmy Allison, a
former political consultant and newspaper owner from
Midland, Texas and one time confidant of the Bush
family. Motivated by pride in her husband and pique at
the manner in which the Bush family discarded him once
they believed he was no longer useful, the interview
is the first she has ever given.
On Sunday the former lieutenant governor of Texas Ben
Barnes will admit on the CBS primetime news programme
60 Minutes that he pulled strings to enrol Mr Bush in
a unit of the Texas National Guard known as the
Champagne Unit, because it had so many sons of
prominent Texas politicians and businessmen.
Mrs Allison said that in 1972 her husband received a
call from Mr Bush's father asking whether he could
find a place for his son on a Senate campaign he was
managing in Alabama. Mr Bush Sr was the US ambassador
to the UN at the time and his son's drunken and
occasionally loutish behaviour was becoming an
embarrassment.
Mr Allison agreed to take the errant Bush son as his
deputy in a Senate campaign to elect the Alabama
Republican Winton "Red" Blount. Once he had an
official reason to be in Alabama, Mr Bush Jr
transferred from the Texas National Guard to its
Alabama counterpart, although beyond one dental
examination there is no proof that he showed up for
any service even though it was only a part-time
posting. Mr Bush was subsequently given an honourable
discharge.
Most involved in the Senate campaign recall Mr Bush Jr
turning up late, boasting about how much alcohol he
had drunk the night before and then going home early.
"After about a month I asked Jimmy what was Georgie's
job, because I could never figure it out," recalled
Mrs Allison. "I never saw him do anything."