5 Years Too Long, 4000 Too Many


Monday, the "Cost of War" reached another grim milestone. The number of American's killed in Iraq passed 4000. But what I notice when I look at the numbers is this, most of them have taken place since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished".

And I think this is part, perhaps the major part, to why opinion towards this war has shifted away from the "War Drums" of Bush and McCain and towards the ideas of withdrawal and reconciling with the rest of the world. People started to see that the occupation was becoming more costly than the actual invasion, both in terms of lives and money.

People also saw that Bush lacked a clear plan, save perhaps to try and use this as a way to keep the American population in fear. He didn't know that Iraq was a land of tribes and factions, or didn't want to know. Most operations have some sort of endpoint, Bush's rejection of any sort of timetable and his refusal to see that even the minimal "benchmarks" aren't being met are both examples of this "Imperial Hubris".

Now Bush did try, he thought that his media "Sheepdogs" of AM-Radio and it's Cable affiliate could keep the population in his "Fog Of War". But Bush, much like he did the Iraqi Insurgency, misestimated the opposition here. Instead of retreating into little enclaves like 30+ years ago, we continued to grow stronger.

And now as we mourn the 4000 who have paid the price of empire, we realize that we have a chance to truly be able to stop the loss of our Americans. Of course, there's the matter of healing these losses. Both here and in the world.