May 29, 2006

Memorial

When I was in Boston for the Democratic National Convention in July, 2004, a small park was co-opted for a silent demonstration against the war. There was just a sign and boots. To be exact, there were 907 pairs of empty boots, one pair for each soldier that had died in Iraq that first year and a bit of the war.

907 pairs of empty boots in a Boston park in July of 2004 commemorating the number of U.S. soldiers that had died in Iraq since the beginning of the war. - natasha

Today, the Iraq Casualty Count stands at 2,465 dead and 17,869 wounded U.S. soldiers.

Update: Remembering all the war dead.

Posted by natasha at May 29, 2006 03:27 PM | Iraq | Technorati links |
Comments

Being a Vietnam veteran and enduring the onslaught of the 'flower children' when returning to the States, I thought they were traitors.

Now, looking back, I find they were right all along. I participated in the fleet operations of August 1964 that launched the first raids on North Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and know the American public was indeed bamboozled, lied to, and deceived by the government for quite a number of years, after accumulating needless thousands of casualties.

The war in Iraq went from WMD to deposing a dictator to rebuilding the country using its oil to pay for the project, to corruption and scandal time and again--and now to full scale civil war.

We never had any intention of 'liberating' Iraq--we are using it as a base for control and domination of the region's resources, and as an excuse that we are battling worldwide terrorists there. I remember them saying during Vietnam that if we didn't stop the commies there we would fight them on our shores. Then came the fall of Saigon, and everyone expected a bloodbath that didn't happen. Vietnam arose all by itself. Now we have diplomatic relations with that beautiful country.

We should deploy our troops within our borders, deal with other countries fairly--and stop the bullying by the corporate bosses who buy the politicians who want to control the world.

Vote for NO corrupt incumbents in a corrupt system. Use your voting flower power.

Stop the slaughter. Pull out now. The world will respect the citizens of the U.S. once again instead of worshiping the American dollar!

Posted by: Jim Pankey, USN (Ret.) at May 29, 2006 04:17 PM

And the real casualty count is orders of magnitude higher.

Posted by: Eli Stephens at May 29, 2006 07:47 PM

JP - It does seem to me that an awful lot of the people who've 'been there, done that' wrt past wars wind up more skeptical of future wars. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

ES - I just saw your reprint on dKos & was coming over here to add an update on that, great work & thanks for doing it.

Posted by: natasha at May 29, 2006 10:42 PM