The casulty rate is even higher when the
collateral damage” (euphemism for civilians) are included. And that is the problem with getting in the middle of a civil war thatis being fought using guerrilla tactics: You end up killing a lot of those you wish to protect/convert. and thise usually means more recruits for whichever “other” side you were attacking (in Iraq there are at least three).

It is the fact that the United States has become enmeshed inside of a three-way civil war that is the disaster. At this stage, only the most brilliant tactics can get the US “out” of the middle, and “success” will be measures not in terms of achievements, but in terms of reducing how badly America will contiue to be harmed.

Don’t forget, the Bush Administration, thorugh its trusted Secretary of Defense predicted in 2003 that the occupation would last no more than “six months”, with Neoconervative Administration officials and analysts testifying before Congress that “Iraqi oil money” would pay for the occupation.

All that is, of course, forgotten by Conservatives who are now High-Fiving themselves because the level of violence in Iraq is “only” where it was in 2005, as though that was something spectacularly great. Rather than a firm indication of how badly Bush Administration incompetence has bungled a prime opportunity for Nation Building on a grand scale.

No one can now say that Iraq is, or will be in the near future, the “Shining Example of Democracy” that President Bush pronounced it to be.

George Bush’s occupation of Iraq has been a colossal failure, even if Conservatives are not permitted to say so publicly. The only thing left now, as Geiorge W. Bush runs out the clock to January 2009, will be for the next president (whomever he may be) to minimize the amount of grevious harm that befalls the United States as a result of President Bush’s bungling. And future historians (IMO) will count it a “success” if Bush’s successor prevents the United States from going the way of the Soviet Union after its occupation of Afghanistan, rather than in terms of Iraq as a model for the entire Midcdle East.

And to rain on your parade even more, you can probably double the enemy’s (that’s the terrorists if anyone gets confused) KIA due to the fact most heavy weapons (120mm HEAT rounds, 155mm Artillery, most bombs, etc) do not make counting easy and the US Military is very conservative on counting enemy KIA.

Thus, the terrorists KIA are probably 50,000-75,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan. This does not count the Philippians, Pakistan, Salomi coast, or any other locations where we engage them.

Hopefully this will be the fix needed. I hate seeing the little guy suffer through each test.

Does this mean Israel has been downgraded?

What’s all this about the “oil” again?

Doesn’t OBL know that his allies in the U.S. Democrat Party are starting to desert him?

Go troops!

Can’t say I’m shocked tho coming from a lefty.

Sorry for being away so long. Kids are sick.

Video with still pic of Biny:
Monaural
The very first sound you hear on the vid is the ventilator.
A respiratory therapist should be able to tell you the model from the sound.
At about 18:00 on you can hear the faint traces of a ventilator, Biny has a trachea.
which also means a Nebulizer.
At 26:00 on it can be heard clearly, the breath between phrases.
Use your ear buds, on high.
You can hear the mechanical breath as the ventilator re-pressurizes his lungs.
Background noise ventilator compressor, breathing for Biny.
Ventilator means he cannot breathe for himself.