Iraq Death Toll Accelerates

When President Bush vetoed a bi-partisan bill in June to fund stem cell research, he said fetuses (even those about to be thrown in the trash) represent human life, which is sacred, and cannot be used to further science.

However, when fetuses grow up, they make fine cannon fodder for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

3,987 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
3,949
3,931
3,849
3,760
3,753
3,739
3,706
3,689
3,613
3,586
3,496

Zero WMD

Does it Matter?

DOES it matter?—losing your legs?...
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.
Does it matter?—losing your sight?...
There’s such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.
Do they matter?—those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won’t say that you’re mad;
For they’ll know you’ve fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit. --Siegfried Sassoon, 1918

Iraq Report Card: Failing Grades

New Report On Iraq Finds Baghdad Hasn't Met 11 Of Its 18 Political And Security Benchmarks

(AP) Violence in Iraq remains high, fewer Iraqi security forces are capable of acting independently, and the Baghdad legislature has failed to reach major political agreements needed to curb sectarian violence, says a report released Tuesday.

The study by the Government Accountability Office is a blunt assessment that challenges President Bush's findings on the war as he prepares to announce plans for the U.S. military campaign, which has cost the lives of more than 3,700 U.S. troops since it began in 2003.

Bremer Points Out Latest Bush Lie on Iraq

Envoy’s Letters Counter Bush on Dismantling of Iraq Army
By Edmond Andrews, New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — A previously undisclosed exchange of letters shows that President Bush was told in advance by his top Iraq envoy in May 2003 of a plan to “dissolve Saddam’s military and intelligence structures,” a plan that the envoy, L. Paul Bremer, said referred to dismantling the Iraqi Army.

Mr. Bremer provided the letters to The New York Times on Monday after reading that Mr. Bush was quoted in a new book as saying that American policy had been “to keep the army intact” but that it “didn’t happen.”

The dismantling of the Iraqi Army in the aftermath of the American invasion is now widely regarded as a mistake that stoked rebellion among hundreds of thousands of former Iraqi soldiers and made it more difficult to reduce sectarian bloodshed and attacks by insurgents. In releasing the letters, Mr. Bremer said he wanted to refute the suggestion in Mr. Bush’s comment that Mr. Bremer had acted to disband the army without the knowledge and concurrence of the White House.

UK General Slams Rumsfeld

The general who headed the British army during the invasion of Iraq said the approach taken by Donald Rumsfeld, the then US defence secretary, was "intellectually bankrupt", describing his claim that US forces "don't do nation-building" as "nonsensical".

General Sir Mike Jackson said Mr Rumsfeld was "one of those most responsible for the current situation in Iraq".

Crucially, the general writes, he refused to deploy enough troops to maintain law and order after the collapse of Saddam's regime, and discarded detailed plans for the post-conflict administration of Iraq that had been drawn up by the US State Department.

"All the planning carried out by the State Department went to waste." For Mr Rumsfeld and his neo-conservative supporters "it was an ideological article of faith that the coalition forces would be accepted as a liberating army."