4000

The odometer of death took another major turn today, as the US recorded the 4000th fatality in Iraq. 4000.

Remember "they will greet us as liberators"? Or "it will take a few weeks, or perhaps a month"? Or the risk to the USA, the WMDs and potential mushroom clouds?

That was five years ago. We still haven't located those WMDs, and we're still over there.

Those who initiated the war have no regrets. Bush thinks it was a grand adventure. Cheney (he of the five draft deferments) points out that all the servicemen who died were volunteers. Mind you, many joined up to fight those who attacked us on 9-11, but got sent to Iraq instead. From and interview with ABC news:

"I want to start with the milestone today of 4,000 dead in Iraq. Americans. And just what effect do you think it has on the country?" asked ABC News' White House correspondent, Martha Raddatz, who traveled with the vice president on a nine-day overseas trip to Iraq and other countries in the Middle East.

"It obviously brings home I think for a lot of people the cost that's involved in the global war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan," Cheney said in the interview, conducted in Turkey. "It places a special burden obviously on the families, and we recognize, I think it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have."

"The president carries the biggest burden, obviously," Cheney said. "He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us."

Raddatz noted that some soldiers, Air Force members, and Marines have been on multiple deployments and have been sent back to Iraq because of the stop-loss policy, and involuntary extension of a service member's enlistment contract. The Army alone says 58,000 US soldiers have been redeployed to war because of the stop-loss policy.

"When you talk about an all-volunteer force, some of these soldiers, airmen, Marines have been on two, three, four, some of them more than that, deployments," Raddatz said. "Do you think when they volunteered they had any idea that there would be so many deployments or stop-loss? Some of those who want to get out can't because of stop-loss?"

"A lot of men and women sign up because sometimes they will see developments," Cheney said. "For example, 9/11 stimulated a lot of folks to volunteer for the military because they wanted to be involved in defending the country."

Notice that Cheney never answers the second question. But really, war is a glorious pursuit as long as you're not the one having ot do the fighting and the dying.

P.S. As for how many Iraqis have dies, no one in this administration seems to care about that. After all, they dies free, and that's what matters. We don't count the Iraqi dead, probably because we are afraid of what the numbers might be (over 1,000,000 according to some epidemiological estimates).

ADDENDUM: Blogwhoring is the process of leaving a link to your blog in the comments of another blog (in order to increase traffic to your own blog). It is generally considered poor nettiquette, but tolerated. And I don't mind it, unless the blog you are linking to DOES NOT ALLOW comments. In that case, fuggedaboutit. Goose, gander, sauce, etc.