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American Troop Deaths In Iraq Have Become Passé
by James Glaser
In case you haven't noticed, Americans are still being killed and wounded in Iraq. I know those wounded, losing one, two, three, or even four limbs have never been newsworthy, but battle deaths used to make front page head lines. So far in the month of January there have been 62 combat deaths, so we have kept up with our two-a-day loss average. Actually for the whole war, the average death rate is 2.13 Americans killed every day. Those numbers don't really tell us what the war is like, because it leaves out the 16 Americans who are wounded each day, and then there are the coalition deaths and wounds. Then we can ask on top of that, what about the Iraqis? If we add in the Iraqis who are getting killed and wounded every day, we can see that this war is a real blood bath. Even President Bush has admitted that over 30,000 Iraqis have been killed, but we don't keep any sort of count. Some estimates put that number at over 100,000 Iraqis killed. But let's use George's number of 30,000. That adds in another 29 people dying in Iraq every day from the war and if we add to that an estimated Iraqi wounded number by using the same ratio as Americans wounded to those killed we get 232 Iraqis getting wounded and maimed every day. Now for sure these are all averages and some days see more blood flow than on other days, but it is a pretty safe bet to say that on the average day in Iraq, thirty some people are being killed and about two hundred and fifty are being wounded in this war. That is day in and day out, seven days a week, 365 days a year. All of that blood is not enough to keep the American people interested and now, only on really horrible days when the body count really spikes, do we get any head lines. There has been too much blood for too long and America has become bored with the war and the losses. What we really need to pump up interest is a new war, maybe a better war is new blood, new enemies, and a new start on the body count.... How about Iran? Bush's State of the Union Speech George Bush's poll numbers are way down. Only 39% of Americans think he is doing a good job, so this speech was touted as the one that would make George's poll numbers rise. George talked about lots of stuff. He stressed more federal involvement in education. I believe it was just a few years ago that the Republican Party was talking about doing away with the Department of Education, now the federal government under George Bush wants total control. As I said, George talked about lots of stuff, but the average American will have to by gas in the next couple of days, he or she will hear about the carnage going on in Iraq, they will worry about their family's health care, they will read about Katrina victims still waiting for help, and they will know tonight's speech was just that, a speech by a politician. Those who back Bush will continue to do so and the rest will see what he is really doing for our country. His poll numbers will stay about the same. On thing all the people who watched the speech know for sure.... George Bush did not bring our country closer together. |
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