Monday, January 26, 2004
Is it too much to ask that we be given the names of our soldiers slain in Iraq & Afghanistan? shown where they were killed? The twisted, shattered helicopter in a field, the mangled humvee on a highway. I am sick of numbers: three yesterday, six more today, six yesterday, ten more today. Do not spare us the daily details, posted where we cannot miss them.
Can we bear the picture of flag draped caskets riding a conveyor belt off an aircraft? Where are the wounded being hidden? Let us see their disfigured faces, the empty sleeves of their uniforms, their wheelchairs. We must, if a war is necessary & just.
The fine print
As of Monday, Jan. 26, 514 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, 355 died as a result of hostile action and 159 died of non-hostile causes, the department said. The department did not provide an update over the weekend.
The British military has reported 55 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, five; Thailand, two; Denmark, Ukraine and Poland have reported one each.
Since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 376 U.S. soldiers have died - 240 as a result of hostile action and 136 of non-hostile causes, according to an AP analysis of releases from the Defense Department and U.S. Central Command.
Since the start of military operations, 2,541 U.S. service members have been injured as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. Non-hostile injured numbered 399.
The latest incidents reported by the military:
Three soldiers operating under the 101st Airborne Division were reported missing after being lost Sunday in the Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq. One soldier was in a patrol boat that capsized. The two others were part of the rescue effort.
Army Pfc. Ervin Dervishi, 21, Fort Worth, Texas; died Saturday in Baji, Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the vehicle in which he was traveling; assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Can we bear the picture of flag draped caskets riding a conveyor belt off an aircraft? Where are the wounded being hidden? Let us see their disfigured faces, the empty sleeves of their uniforms, their wheelchairs. We must, if a war is necessary & just.
The fine print
As of Monday, Jan. 26, 514 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, 355 died as a result of hostile action and 159 died of non-hostile causes, the department said. The department did not provide an update over the weekend.
The British military has reported 55 deaths; Italy, 17; Spain, eight; Bulgaria, five; Thailand, two; Denmark, Ukraine and Poland have reported one each.
Since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 376 U.S. soldiers have died - 240 as a result of hostile action and 136 of non-hostile causes, according to an AP analysis of releases from the Defense Department and U.S. Central Command.
Since the start of military operations, 2,541 U.S. service members have been injured as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. Non-hostile injured numbered 399.
The latest incidents reported by the military:
Three soldiers operating under the 101st Airborne Division were reported missing after being lost Sunday in the Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq. One soldier was in a patrol boat that capsized. The two others were part of the rescue effort.
Army Pfc. Ervin Dervishi, 21, Fort Worth, Texas; died Saturday in Baji, Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the vehicle in which he was traveling; assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
