Why does the GOP want Foley on the front page? Because they don’t want news like this becoming the focus point of the 24/7 news cycle:
The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.
Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The sharp increase in American wounded — with nearly 300 more in the first week of October — is a grim measure of the degree to which the U.S. military has been thrust into the lead of the effort to stave off full-scale civil war in Iraq, military officials and experts say. Beyond Baghdad, Marines battling Sunni insurgents in Iraq’s western province of Anbar last month also suffered their highest number of wounded in action since late 2004.
More than 20,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in combat in the Iraq war, and about half have returned to duty. While much media reporting has focused on the more than 2,700 killed, military experts say the number of wounded is a more accurate gauge of the fierceness of fighting because advances in armor and medical care today allow many service members to survive who would have perished in past wars. The ratio of wounded to killed among U.S. forces in Iraq is about 8 to 1, compared with 3 to 1 in Vietnam.
The toll in Iraq is growing at a phenomenal rate. Even worse is the post traumatic effects this war is having on our returning soldiers:
A year after they returned home, members of a badly battered Marine Corps unit are still finding it hard to adjust to their civilian lives.
Some Marines of Lima Company, which lost 16 reservists in Iraq, say they dislike being in crowds, because crowds in Iraq meant trouble.
“I feel like a different person,” said Cpl. Seth Judy, 25, who had surgery in July to remove the last bit of shrapnel embedded in his left knee. “I don’t have a free spirit the way I used to.”
The Columbus-based company, part of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, returned home Oct. 7, 2005. The unit was the subject of A&E Television Network’s documentary film, “Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company,” which used personal video shot by the Marines.
It is the new generation of Vietnam vets this war has created. As horrible as that sounds, even more horrible is the fact that Vietnam had more of a purpose than Iraq. We have seen every single reason for the Iraq war fizzle away in the world of lies and deceit. Now the final reason for the war, because it is the “central front in the war on terror”, has been the only argument the war supporters can give. That very reason is the deadly byproduct of our invasion.
The war on terror and the Iraq war are the first wars in American history that have had zero oversight by the legislative branch. Even the Revolutionary War, the war that defined our nation and occurred before our Constitution was written, was met with heavy oversight. The Continental Congress was not only working hard on building a nation and deciding the laws that would shape it, they were proactively involved with General George Washington’s campaign against the British and insuring the war was being fought as best as it could.
We now got under one month before we go to the polls. Every voter must ask themselves if they want a President, whose power goes unchecked, leading this country. Do you want a President who may make another deadly mistake like Iraq? Do you want a President, who by the abusive use of so called “signing statements”, has ignored the wishes of the American people as exhibited through their elected officials?
If you answer no to any of those then you must vote Democrat this fall. We are not electing a new President this fall, but we are deciding if the enablers of this President stay in office. We are deciding if we want to continue on a path of unchecked power with the President. The single most important issue this fall is deciding if we want to restore checks and balances to our government, which has kept all branches of government under control since our beginning, or ignore that vital tool of democracy and allow the rubber stampers to return. I love this country and I want to return it to the pride of the world it once was.