30,000 Wounded in Iraq

30,000 Wounded in Iraq

“I wrote on my blog back in 2004,
I noted that there was a civil war going on in Iraq. That's not really news.
I think by presenting it as if it is news now, it's really an admission of how
people aren't following what's going on all along.” – Glenn Reynolds on
“Reliable Sources”

From Iraq to cartoon fury to Portgate,
Republicans are in a tailspin, in the midst of a failure to communicate crap
shoot as they sling their stories from one side of the political spectrum to
another, no consensus in sight. You need Dramamine to keep from getting dizzy
and dropping over. We've even got Senator
Specter proposing… er… well, FISA.

Today on “Meet the Republicans,” Timmy had Rep. Peter
King calling Homeland Security guru Michael Chertoff a liar, using other words of course, for saying a
full investigation had been conducted on the Dubai Port deal. Senator
John Warner was more concerned that we all stop talking about foreign governments
“owning” our ports. No, they'll just have the hands on security once the cargo lands on the dock.

But when the talk turned to Iraq, like Glenn
Reynolds above, the truth slipped out.

“… over 2,000 have been
killed. Over 25-30,000 have been wounded.” – Senator John Warner (“Meet the Press,” 2.26.06)

Think about those numbers again, see the faces, recall the headlines
and please wake up to our reality. A reality that no Republican has admitted to until today. This is news no one is covering. How many Americans do you think know that 30,000 American soldiers have been wounded, some very seriously, including missing limbs?

Today on “Realiable Sources,” Walter Shapiro put a challenge to the Washington Post,
New York Times and LA Times. Each paper should “run every day in their Iraq coverage
a little box explaining what parts of the country it is possible for reporters
to cover in and what parts of the country it's impossible to cover in.”
The constraints under which reporters are operating in Iraq
is such an important part of the story and the American people need to know
about it, because we're only getting part of the Iraq war story because of it.

Another item of interest popped up and is pertinent today.

In five years' time, how many Jews will
be living in France? Two years ago, a 23-year-old Paris disc jockey called Sebastien
Selam was heading off to work from his parents' apartment when he was jumped
in the parking garage by his Muslim neighbor Adel. Selam's throat was slit twice,
to the point of near-decapitation … This month, there was another murder.
Ilan Halimi, also 23, also Jewish, was found by a railway track outside Paris
with burns and knife wounds all over his body. … The I'd-like-to-teach-the-world-to-sing-in-perfect-harmonee
crowd have always spoken favorably of one-worldism. From the op-ed pages of
Jutland newspapers to les banlieues of Paris, the Pan-Islamists are getting
on with it. Mark
Steyn

Part of the “Pan-Islamist” crowd can be found over at
RedState, who
now calls the Dubai port deal a “faux” issue, with Republicans in
Congress joining the flip flopping crowd to cover President Bush's incompetence.

Don't look now, but the politically correct crowd just switched
parties, all in the name of rewarding a government-owned company with ties to
9/11 and the murderer who got it done.

“We cannot afford to mess
this deal up.” – Senator John Warner

It's business as usual for the corporate crowd, with the inference
being the UAE will jettison our base if we blow the Dubai port deal. If that's
true, make the case, present the evidence, because I don't believe it. It's
scare tactics from yet another direction.

Warner also talked about UAE “problems” prior to 9/11.
Problems? It's the understatement of the current discussion, more out
of touch rhetoric to calm the ignorant. Tim Kaine, co-chairman of the 9/11 commission,
a Republican, said this is not a good deal. We should also remember, among all
the other things pointed out, that when we had a chance to take Osama out, there's evidence that a UAE official might have tipped bin Laden off! I'd say that's a problem.

The flip flopping Republicans have decided to put the
president and their party above this country and what the American people
want. But in doing so, all they are doing is supporting the reality that Democrats
not only are leading
on national security, but we've earned the right to lead, because the president
and the Republicans in Congress have failed at every turn.