How Many Deaths, Really?

"... and what about American military deaths? When will someone do a study on the actual number of those? If the Bush administration is lying so vehemently about the number of dead Iraqis, one can only imagein the extent of lying about dead Americans..."

This is a quote from an Iraqi blogger on the Riverbend blog Bagdad Burning (riverbendblog.blogspot.com) and is part of what was written after the Lancet estimated the staggering number of Iraqi deaths.

And, as it turns out, she is right. The number of US deaths reported at around 3000 is quite misleading, if in fact, not true. Apparently these numbers only include deaths on the battlefield. So, if a soldier is transported off the battlefield and dies later, his death is not included in this count. If all these deaths were counted, the number is much higher. How much higher? Another 1000? Another 10,000?

The fact is, we don't know, and if this administration is using such a restricted definition of "deaths", then they are really, and blatantly, misleading the nation.

If You Know Your Enemy

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. "

The Art of War - Sun-Tzu
..........................................................

In order to win a war, you must know your enemy. To think the Iraqi's (and the Muslim's) are fighting us because they "hate freedom and democracy" is ludicrous. Our forefather's said that some things are self evident. The universal love of freedom is one of them.

So, perhaps it is something else that inflames their wrath. Perhaps it is hypocritical policies. Like the way we talk fairness and then change their laws to enable the selling of their resources only to our friends. Perhaps it's because we expound human rights and then create Abu Grahaib, and Guantanamo, and extraordinary renditions to somewhere. We talk justice, and then jail innocent people without cause or trials. We talk democracy, and then support dictators if they will support our material needs. We talk rule of law and then let our hired mercenaries act without laws.

If we really knew the terrorists and the insurgents, we would know these things. Since we don't, we cannot win.

"... it helps ... to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and ... we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition."

A Buddist Quote

Bush Bill Takes Country Down Long Dark Road of Shame

Statement by Elizabeth Holtzman on Granting Immunity to President Bush Under the Military Tribunals Law

"Today will go down in the annals of infamy. By signing the military tribunals bill into law, President Bush has taken this country down a long dark road of shame.

"The bill countenances abuse of detainees in defiance of the Geneva Conventions and the country's past moral values and it suspends habeas corpus in defiance of the constitution. As bad as these features is the bill's grant of a pardon to President Bush and his top Cabinet officials for any crimes they may have committed under the War Crimes Act of 1996.

"When a president violates the country's criminal laws and then gets a secret grant of immunity for those crimes, he makes a mockery of the rule of law. Then all lawlessness is permissible.

"This provision in the bill creates a culture of impunity for torture and abuse of detainees. It was slipped into the bill in secret, without hearings or debate. Most members of Congress, most reporters and most Americans have no idea that this has happened.

"By doing this the President has stuck a horrific blow at our basic democratic values and our constitutional system.

"Instead of pardoning himself with the complicity of Congress, the President should be making public what acts of prisoner abuse he authorized the CIA to undertake or what acts of theirs he ratified."

Establishment Of An Absolute Tyranny Over These States

The history of this president is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world...

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences...

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation..."

Parts modified from the "US Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776"

"A time comes when silence is betrayal."

"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Iraqis and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."

A Buddist quote.

"Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition."

Beyone vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.
Rev Martin Luther King, April 4, 1967 (Changed "Vietnamese" to "Iraqis")

Out, damned spot! out, I say!

"Here's the smell of blood still.All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand"

(Macbeth)

600,000 dead in Iraq since the start of the war. Over half women and children.

In the age of responsibility, who will take it? The Commander in Chief? Secretary of Defence? Congressmen who voted for the war? People who voted for this administration? People who remained silent and did nothing to stop it?

Whose hand is it?

Character Counts, Torture and the fall of Habius Corpus

It is a bit ironic that at the same time Bush declares "National Character Counts week" he also signs a bill (Military Commissions Act of 2006) that allows torture and other trashing of the Constitution including the repeal of the decades old Habeas Corpus.

...and the sad thing is he doesn't see the hugh blot on his own character that this dreadful bill has caused.

Our Safety Depends Upon Preserving the Constitution, and It Is Our Duty to Overthrow the Men Who Pervert It.

What would you do if a president's actions showed that he was dismantling the Constitution?

How can someone take the oath of office, to protect and preserve the Constitution, and then attempt to usurp congressional authority with signing statements?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...

The Bill Of Rights protects us (citizens and non-citizens) against illegal search and seizure, against jailing without being accused... and yet, our President, with Congress' blessing, has attempted to allow these!

"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Abraham Lincoln