Actually 1001 last time I looked.
(Where is the story on this from the liberal media?)
What do we win?
At the top of my Yahoo News page: US Iraq Death Toll Hits 1,000, Two Italians Seized
Sorry to burst your bubble. Anything else we should debate?
Yay?
Should we celebrate? Suddenly mourn more deeply? Change our minds? What?
Congratulations. How many Iraqi children did we kill?
An assurance that the Iraqi’s will retake the cities controlled by insurgents, and when that’s accomplished, and security is established, the possibility that maybe we won’t have to delay their free and democratic elections.
Remember, the harder they fight, the more desperate they are. As things are going now, a second catastrophic success must be just around the corner!
We should be thankful for men and women of honor who do what they are asked to do, even when they are put in mortal danger, even when there is a strong question as to the validity of their task.
We should give respect, thanks, comfort and aid to the loved ones who have been left behind.
We should hope and pray – if we’re inclined to the latter – for a cessation of violence from the terrorists who are killing our soldiers, Iraqi officials and innocent Iraqi civilians in a bid to spread fear and chaos , sow seeds of doubt and sedition and bring about another Taliban-esque regime in a country that has had far more than its share of dictatorial rule and needs democracy and freedom more than ever.
WRT the OP:
I think we should stop hitting them. Seems disrespectful, somehow.
Didn’t see it on CNN/FOX/ABC which hit a larger portion of the public. We used to get updates there everyday.
What is the debate? Not enough liberal media attention?
OK, here’s a debate: How will our passing the 1,000-dead mark affect the U.S. election?
Well sure. But shouldn’t we have been doing that all along?
We should hope and pray for some recognition from the CIC regarding this milestone.
George?
I will make by bias clear before I make my point. I am in favor the war in Iraq, so as to create a relatively democratic, stable prosperous pro Western (or at least not hostile) presence in the Middle East, in short, an Arabic Turkey.
Comment: I find the obsession with casualties fascinating. I, like many of the denizens of this board, know military history well. 1000 dead in 17 months of warfare is tiny when one considers what is at stake. About 1/3 of those deaths, I believe, were not combat related. I also believe that at least 1000 Americans in the military die each year in accidents.
When I think of how many people die a year in our country from non disease causes, there seems to be something else going on. We have 100,000 a year from medical mistakes, 40,000 in traffic accidents, 15,000 suicides, 15,000 homicides, etc., etc.
It does not seem that people just care that folks are dying, because if you want to stop people dying, there are lots of places to begin.
If the press reported other deaths like they report Iraq deaths, maybe we would address some of these others problems.
I am not insensitive to the deaths there, mind you. My son is a Marine Corporal, who fought throught the war last year, and saw action in many battles. He volunteered to go back and his battalion just saw extensive battle at Najaf. He just wrote to me of the memorial service they had for one of his good buddies who died in my son’s presence. Heart wrenching. But he and his cohorts believe deeply in what they are doing, and many like him volunteered to return to Iraq.
In prior wars, we as a nation absorbed much higher casualties. I think Viet Nam made us casualty intolerant.
Well in the interest of full disclosure, I was against the war, for two reasons, the basis on which it was sold, and that I don’t think democracy can be conferred from outside influences. However I hope it works out, as the alternnative is unthinkable. I was also called up during the first Gulf War, but served in Texas (insert joke here), as my specialty has plenty of career soldiers who wanted their combat ribbons.
Do you watch your local news? I ask because I happen to know the exact number of deaths by homicide in my city last year and the year before. I know because the Media reported on it as relentlessly as the reports on the casualties in Iraq. I don’t know the number of accidents, but that merely because I didn’t count them, but it’s not like they the Media was shy about broadcasting them. I do think you might have something on Vietnam having to do with the casualty aversion we’re seeing among the population though. However I think it’s more to do with the relative worth of the mission, instead of the body count. I don’t think we’d be seeing the same kinds of dread over casualty numbers if more people felt this was legitimate war of neccessity. Note this is an opinion.
The U.S. government didn’t send those people out to die from medical mistakes, or traffic accidents.
On the contrary, I think this statistic should provoke a vigorous debate. Clearly, there are a substantial number of factions that do NOT want the US in Iraq. Further, the fact that there is more and more of this, leads me to suspect that the moderate Iraqis have written off the US-sponsored provisional governemnt. Because they see that government as stillborn, they are instead preparing for the struggle to come, when the US and British forces leave. This explains why huge arms caches are being stockpiled, and militias are being built up.
I expect that a massive civil war will break out, once the US forces leave.
What should we do? I think we have to protect the oil pipelines and refineries, and leave the cities to the militias…eventually, the civil war will burn itself out.
Yeah, well “in the last month the Iraqi forces and the coalition forces have probably killed 1,500, 2,000, 2,500 former regime elements, criminals, terrorists.” That’s way beyond the traffic fatality rate for a country as small as Iraq. It’s more like a neverending 9/11 for them.
Is a few thousand lives not a small price to pay for preventing a civil war that could potentially kill tens or hundreds of thousands and leave the country in ruin?
Seriously, when did we start thinking wars could be fought without killing a lot of people and taking casualties? If that’s what people think, maybe we shouldn’t fight them.