US death toll reaches 3,000

The 3,000th American soldier has now died in Iraq, marking the moment when the number of young soldiers who have died in this campaign is almost equivalent to the number of civilians who died on 9-11.

Bush has responded by saying:

"The most painful aspect of the presidency is the fact that I know my decisions have caused young men and women to lose their lives," Mr Bush said at an end-of-year press conference in Texas. A White House spokesman added simply that the president "will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain".

Now most of us know that when Bush says he will "ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain" that he is actually saying that more young Americans must die.

Bush continues to believe, astonishingly, that victory is still possible in former Mesopotamia. And, until he is dissuaded of that notion, more and more American troops will remain in danger whilst fighting for a cause that the entire world - with the exception of Bush and Blair - can now see as lost.

Baker has attempted to give Bush a face saving way out of this conflict which basically amounts to declaring victory and getting out, but Bush is giving every signal that he has no intention of taking that advice.

Indeed, even his decision to hang Saddam is being viewed by some as an indication that he intends to remain in Iraq.

The International Action Centre called it "a clear sign that the Bush administration is looking not to negotiate a way for the US to leave Iraq, but is instead sending a signal that it will continue the war and escalate it, despite the impending disaster".

However, the conservative commentator Bill Kristol yesterday welcomed the execution, suggesting it "could be a milestone on the road towards a more decent and democratic regime in Iraq".

I find it simply astonishing that people like Bill Kristol continue to be listened to by the Bush administration. Kristol, like so many other right wing mouthpieces, has been proven to be wrong on every single prediction he has ever made regarding this conflict.

The man who said:

"There's been a certain amount of pop sociology in America ... that the Shia can't get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There's almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq's always been very secular"

is astonishingly still being listened to and treated as serious commentator, despite the fact that Iraq has descended into Sectarian madness.

Now he, and his ilk, are arguing that the problem the US faces in Iraq is similar to the problem that it faced towards the end of the Vietnam conflict. Americans simply aren't fighting hard enough. It's the old "one more push" argument that lunatics on the right always use to excuse the US's failure in south east Asia. It states, "we would have won had not the Liberals lacked the stomach for the fight".

Indeed, Kristol now claims that the US have not been conducting a "serious effort" in Iraq.

BILL KRISTOL: There would not be civil war if Zarqawi had not spent the last 2 1/2 years – had ex-Saddamists with him, very skillfully going on the offensive slaughtering Shia in Karbala, now blowing up the mosque.

CHRIS WALLACE: They’re there. There are going to be more mosques to blow up. What do you do about the terrorists?

KRISTOL: Kill them. Defeat them.

CHRIS WALLACE: We’ve been trying.

KRISTOL: We’ve been trying, and our soldiers are doing terrifically, but we have not had a serious three-year effort to fight a war in Iraq as opposed to laying the preconditions for getting out.

What's extraordinary is that Bush seems willing to listen to the kind of arguments put forward by people like Kristol, who have been wrong on almost everything they have said, and dismissive of the arguments put forward by Baker and Co.

How many more young Americans must die at the hands of these armchair generals, these chickenhawks who bravely send other people's youngsters to die in wars? Armchair generals who, when given the opportunity to fight for their country themselves, mysteriously declined?

The Project for a New American Century, which was spearheaded by Kristol and his gang, has resulted in the disaster that we now witness in Iraq. Now, predictably, they are saying that the reason it is a disaster is not that the idea was flawed, but rather that it's implementation was skewered. It's a familiar refrain from people who can never admit that they are wrong.

Unfortunately, it's other people's kids who die for these neo-conservative lunatics and their inability to ever concede the fact that they are simply flat wrong.

Bill Maher sums it up very well in this clip:



The tragedy is that Bush still listens to these morons.

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tag: Bush, war on terror, Iraq war, casualties, rising, "Stay the course", US foreign policy, 3000 dead, Bill Kristol,