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George Doesn't Want To Be Remembered As a Loser
by James Glaser
A quotation from our president, "We're not leaving so long as I'm president." George is looking at his legacy, and if we pull the troops out now, then Iraq goes down in the loss column. Bush is already looking at one loss in Afghanistan, and if we concede Iraq, that makes him 0 for 2. Either he gets a win in Iraq, or he starts something new with Iran or North Korea. At one time George was riding high. He had that banner that read "Mission Accomplished" behind him while thinking that Afghanistan was already in the bag. Fast forward to today, and we have over 22,000 American troops killed or wounded in Iraq. A few years ago things looked good in Afghanistan, but already this year 74 Americans have been killed, and 168 have been wounded. Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are still there calling the shots for the Taliban. No Afghan leader ever surrendered and signed a peace accord with us or the puppet government we installed. Nobody ever told the Taliban that the war was over, so they continue to fight, and just last week we started sending in more troops. Remember, it has been almost five years since Master Sergeant Evander E. Andrews was killed on 10/01/01, becoming the first American killed in Bush's Afghan war. If we tow the line and keep our troops in Iraq until George leaves office, another16,000 Americans are likely to be killed and wounded. With using the average of killed and wounded so far in the almost 3½ years we have been fighting in Iraq, another 1,850 Soldiers and Marines will be killed. That is if the fighting stays the same. If our troops are caught in the middle of an all out civil war, that number could go much higher. But for the sake of getting at least one war in the win column, George Bush is willing to sacrifice all those troops. Remember also, just this week, when asked what Iraq had to do with the terrorist attack of 9/11, all he could answer was an honest, "Nothing." None of these numbers of killed and wounded tell us the whole story. For every American killed or wounded, there is a mother who suffers and will suffer until the day she dies. Think about all the mothers, fathers, wives and children who now have a loved one so maimed and disfigured that their lives will never be the same. Think of the thousands of families who have a loved one suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. Their numbers, even though in the tens of thousands, are never counted How many more Iraqis will be killed while George Bush keeps our troops in Iraq? They are being killed at a rate of a hundred a day, even at half that number, at least forty some thousand will die, and maybe a couple hundred thousand will be maimed and wounded by the time Bush leaves office. If you think all those numbers of dead and maimed are bad, think about this. The day George leaves office, there isn't going to be some magic instantaneous pull-out. So, all of those disturbing numbers are on the low side. Even when we do decide to leave, it will take months, maybe a year and the deaths and wounds will pile up on both sides Nobody likes to be branded as a loser, but now that's how George Bush is going to be remembered. |
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