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"While
our troops go out to defend our country, it is incumbent upon us to make the country worth defending."
Deskmerc
As we enter the sixth year of this insanity
in Iraq we also must note that the death toll now has risen above 4,000...sure it's just a number but it is one that never
should have been...these brave men and women should be with their loved ones...raising their families...laughing...singing...fathers
teaching their sons baseball or football...mothers loving raising their children...The hope and dreams of these 4,000 plus
will never be realized and the families are left to wonder why...
What makes me the maddest is when I hear someone like Cheney saying "the President cares
very deeply for these soldiers and their families"...if he did he would not be able to sleep at
night!!! What has transpired the last five years is a disgrace and what's worse is we held no one responsibile for not only
the deaths of our 4,000 finest but for the utter castroiphie that Bush calls the "War on terror"...and what is also ironic
is that we impeached a President for far far less then the slaughter and the lies and deceit of this administration...Shame
on us!!!
US Death Toll in Iraq Hits 4,000
 BAGHDAD - U.S. officials said Monday they will press forward in the fight against extremists in Iraq a day after the overall
U.S. death toll in the five-year conflict rose to 4,000.
The White House called the grim milestone "a sober moment" and said President Bush spends time ever y day thinking about those who have lost their lives in battle.
"He bears the responsibility for the decisions that he made," White House press secretary
Dana Perino said. "He also bears the responsibility to continue to focus on succeeding."
The deaths of four U.S. soldiers in a roadside bombing about 10 p.m. Sunday in southern Baghdad pushed to
4,000 the number of American service members killed as the war enters its sixth year. Another soldier was wounded in the attack,
the military said.
Iraq War Disappears As TV  Story
Finding News About Iraq War on TV Takes Some Digging Remember the war in Iraq The question isn't entirely
facetious. The war has nearly vanished from TV screens over the past few months, replaced by stories about the fascinating
presidential campaign and faltering economy.
Yet Americans continue to fight and die there, fiv e years after the war started in March 2003. "It's no big secret that this is a war that everyone has grown tired of," From
a journalist's standpoint, the story hasn't changed for several months.
The American "surge" appears to have made progress, and while Iraq is hardly safe, pockets of the
country are much safer than before.
Iraq war's cost: Loss of U.S. power, prestige,  influence
WASHINGTON — It was a decision that only President Bush had the power to make: At about 9 a.m.
on March 19, 2003, in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing of the White House, he gave the "execute order"
to begin Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. 
Now, five years later, the consequences of that act will soon be beyond Bush's
grasp. In 10 months, they'll land on the desk of his successor.
Thanks in part to the Iraq war, the next U.S. president — Republican or Democrat, black or white,
man or woman — will take office with America's power, prestige and popularity in decline."
Photographic icons of Iraq war
By JERRY SCHWARTZ Associated Press Writer
 When you close your eyes and think of Iraq, what do you see in your mind's eye?
Is it a picture of charred bodies hanging from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah? Is it
a picture of a Marine climbing a massive statue of Saddam Hussein to place an American flag on its  face, hours after the fall of Baghdad?
Or is it a picture of an Iraqi prisoner standing on a box, arms outstretched with
wires attached, a fabric bag covering his head?
The images of Iraq are piling up. The pictures are  everywhere — in newspapers, on television, on the Web and, most prominently, in our collective psyche.
As much as the body counts and the sad tales of the wounded, as much as the successes
and failures in battle, these photographs form the narrative of the past five years.
Photography has documented America's wars since Matthew Brady roamed the Civil War battlefields. The tragedy
and exaltation of warfare are prime  material for the camera, and war itself trumps all other stories: "War is not my delight," said Carl Mydans, who photographed
wars from the onset of World War II to America's misadventure in Vietnam. "War was the event of my years."
In Iraq, "we've just been flooded with images," says  Perlmutter, associate dean of journalism at the University of Kansas and author of "Visions of War: Picturing Warfare from
the Stone Age to the Cyberage."
Every war has its pictorial icons, Perlmutter says. The ones that remain fixed in our culture usually reflect
the outcome of the war. 
World War II, a triumph, has Joe Rosenthal's epic picture of the Marines raising the flag
at Iwo Jima; Vietnam, a disaster, has Eddie Adams' series of pictures of a general executing a Viet Cong prisoner,  and Nick Ut's photo of a napalm-drenched, naked young girl running screaming down the road.
So what will be the icons of Iraq?
Perhaps the tight portrait of a helmeted Marine, his face coated with grime and creased
with fatigue, a  cigarette dangling from his lips. James Blake Miller came to be known as the "Marlboro Man"; the public followed his story
home, to hard times and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Perhaps the Abu Ghraib pictures — snapshots with a chilling immediacy. Or  President Bush speaking on an aircraft carrier, a banner with the premature boast "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" stretched behind
him.
Or Saddam Hussein, bleary and bearded after his stay in a spider hole. Or any of a number of visions of death or battle or grief.
And then there are the coffins. In the early days of the war, authorities forbade
photographs of transports loaded with flag-draped coffins; a contractor was even fired for leaking one such picture.
But the conflict continued and photos of caskets have become commonplace, as the funerals
go on and on…
The Uncertain Meaning of 4,000 American Military Dead in Iraq
 Amid Presidential Race and Ongoing War Debate, Will News of 4,000 Dead Make Impact?
By ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN
The 4,000-dead mark will
symbolize the real cost of the UP.S. participation in the war in Iraq, and the courage and sacrifice of our men and women
in uniform. It will also inevitably trigger another wave of polarized debate. Those who oppose the war will see the 4,000 dead as further reason to end it. Those who support the war will point to military progress and say that future
casualties will be much lower.
There is likely to be something of a saturation effect in this debate.There already are a host of
Iraq-related issues to deal with. We will reach the 4,000 mark at a time when the fifth anniversary has already triggered
a new wave of debate on its own, and Gen. David  Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's testimony before Congress on Iraq progress will come in early April. It will interact
with the $3 trillion war cost debate, the bitter exchanges between Democratic Party candidates, Iraqi debates over political
accommodation, and al Qaeda's ongoing suicide attacks and atrocities.
As for its real world significance, the 4,000 figure is obviously a symbol.
The grim fact is that 4,000 killed is really no different from 3,999 or 4,001. There are, however, several points that do deserve consideration when
we reach this figure.
The wounded figure since March 19, 2003, is now well above 29,000. It is far, far higher
than the number kill ed, and often has a more lasting impact on those who sacrifice as a human tragedy and in terms of costs. If one counts the
number of men and women whose lives have been virtually destroyed by critical combat wounds and adds that total to the number
killed, we reached 4,000 long ago.
No one can really predict at this time whether we will be able to sharply
reduce the futur e rate of casualties during 2009-2010, and move to "strategic overwatch" and reliance on the ISF for almost all the fighting.
We could see a failure of political conciliation lead to more intense U.S. fighting and a new rise in casualty rates or even
to U.S. withdrawal.
The odds of success in Iraq now seem higher than those of defeat, and events seem more
likely to steadily reduce U.S. casualties, but there are no certainties
Bomb Kills 43 As Cheney, McCain Visit Iraq
 Suicide Bomber Attacks Shiite Worshippers As VP, Presidential Hopeful Tout Security Gains
CBS/AP) A female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in the holy city of Karbala
on Monday, an official and a witness said, killing at least 43 people and leaving pools of blood on the street leading to
one of Iraq's most revered mosques.
The violence marred overlapping trips by Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain to Baghdad. Their visits were aimed at touting recent security gains and stressing
Washington's long-term commitment to fighting insurgents in Iraq
The bomber struck after the worshippers had gathered at a sacred historical site about
half a mile from the golden domed shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in a seventh-century
battle.
Iraq has million-woman social time-bomb
 BAGHDAD - Every week, letters from Iraqi widows spill across Samira Al Moussawi’s desk. One wrote
to ask whether she should spend what scant money she gets on her infant or on school books for her older son.
The member of parliament and head of a parliamentary women’s committee is at her wits’
end as to how to answer the desperate pleas from what could be as many as one to two million women.
Violence has fallen sharply across Iraq, but the number of women left without
breadwinners is  mounting, and with only a fraction of them receiving financial support from the government, officials fear the consequences
could be explosive.
"What shall the widow do, deviate from what is right?" Moussawi said. "Terrorist groups exploit the
destitute." "
The number (of widows) is increasing day after day, it is becoming a time bomb,
especially because many of them are still young," Othman told Reuters. "They become prisoners at home."
Bomber Targets GIs, Kills 6 Afghans
 No Americans Seriously Wounded; Afghan Officials Say 41 Taliban Killed In Southern Region
CBS/AP) A suicide car bomber struck an armored vehicle carrying U.S. troops near the capital city's airport
Thursday. The blast killed at least six Afghan civilians and wounded up to 20 others, officials said.
None of the four American troops traveling in a two-vehicle convoy were badly wounded,
said Lt.  Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces.
The troops were traveling in one SUV and one truck, he said. Most U.S. vehicles are armored.
The
suicide car bomb turned into a fiery ball that burned on the main road to Kabul's airport long after the attack.
Iraq’s healthcare left in  disarray (Guardian News Service)
THE full extent of the destruction of Iraq’s healthcare system and the devastating
impact it has had on its people is documented today in a new report which indicts the allied invasion force for failing in
its duty to protect medical institutions and staff.
The health system is in disarray owing to the lack of an institutional framework, intermittent electricity, unsafe water, and frequent violations of medical neutrality. The ministry of health and local health authorities are mostly
unable to meet these huge challenges, while the activities of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations are severely
limited.’
The report, by the organization Medact, tells how the charges for healthcare, abolished
by the coalition forces in a flurry of idealism, have been quietly reinstated by health authorities unable to pay salaries
and buy the drugs they need. Worse, patients now have to pay bribes to get into hospital.
U.S. Defense Dept: Top Terrorist Nabbed
 Al Qaeda's Mohammad Rahim Reportedly Helped Osama Bin Laden Flee Afghanistan In 2001
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to say when or where Mohammad Rahim al-Afghani was captured
- or by whom - announcing only that he was handed over by the CIA to the Pentagon earlier this week and is being held at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
"Rahim is a tough, seasoned jihadist," Hayden said. "His combat experience, which dates
back to the 1980s, includes plots against U.S. and Afghan targets."
Rahim is a close associate of bin Laden and has ties to al Qaeda organizations throughout the Middle East,
Whitman said.
Health Care
 -- Nearly half of the 34,000 registered physicians have left the country in the wake of sectarian threats and violence, impeding
health care delivery. (Source: Defense Department)
-- 92 of the 137 primary health care centers (PHCs) planned for construction are
completed, with 50 in operation.  (Source: Defense Department)
-- Another 28 completed hospitals are waiting to be open because there aren't enough medical personnel
to work in them. (Source: Defense Department.)
-- Numbers on hospitals and health care facilities  nationwide are not available. (Source: Michael O'Hanlon, Brookings Institute)
Doctors
-- Number of Iraqi physicians registered be fore the 2003 invasion: 34,000
-- Estimated number of Iraqi physicians who have left since 2003 invasion: 17,000
-- Estimated number of Iraqi physicians murdered since 2003 invasion: 2,000
-- Average salary of an Iraqi physician: 7.5 million Iraqi dinars per year (or $5,100)
- -Annual graduates from Iraqi medical schools: 2,250 (Source:
Brookings Institute)
UN:Drop in Iraq Violence May Not Last
 UN Report: Drop in Violence Provides Window of Opportunity in Iraq, but It May Not Continue
The influx of thousands of U.S. forces has driven down insurgent attacks in Baghdad, but violence elsewhere
in Iraq raises questions about whether killings will continue to drop as American forces begin to leave, the United Nations
said Saturday.
As security improved in Baghdad, violent attacks  spread last year to other parts of the country, including Diyala Province and Mosul, al-Qaida's last urban stronghold, according
to the report from the United Nations.
 The government of Iraq continued to face enormous challenges in its efforts to bring sectarian violence and other criminal
activity under control against a backdrop of political instability,"
Awakening Councils, groups composed of former Sunni fighters who have accepted
U.S. funding to switch allegiances and fight al-Qaida in Iraq, have played an important role in stopping violence.
How Much Have We Spent, How Many Lives Lost, How Lives Have Changed
Costs:
Cost
for Operation Iraqi Freedom: $406.2 Billion
Average monthly spending in Iraq: $9.2 billion
(Source: CRS Report for Congress — "The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan and Other Global War
on Terror Operations Since 9/11")
 U.S. Troop Levels:
Current U.S. troop
levels (as of 3/6/2008): 159,000
Trained Iraqi Security Forces: 425,345
(Source:
Brookings Institute, Defense Department)
Casualties:
Non-Iraq civilians killed since May, 200 3: 504 (Brookings Institute)
Journalists killed in Iraq, including media workers such as drivers and interpreters:
174
(Source: Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction)
U.S. troops wounded in action since March 2003: 29,275
 Iraqi Civilians: 81,964 — 89,448 (Source: Defense Department)
As of 3-23-08 3,996 of Americas Best gave their all...God Bless Them....
Oil Production:
Average daily oil production:
-- Prewar: 2.5 million barrels/day
-- March 2008: 2.3 million barrels/day,
wit h daily exports of 1.8 billion barrels/day (Source: Department
of Defense)
-- Oil Revenue export in 2007: $41 billion
-- Oil Revenue from exports (since June of 2003): $125.3 billion
-- Attacks on Iraqi oil and gas pipelines, installations and personnel since 2003:
466
(Sources: Department of Defense, Brookings
Institute)
What the
next year will bring is hard to tell..We  have McCain talking about a hundred years in Iraq...Clinton say she will have us out within a year...Obama says we're out
withing 60 days if he's elected president...for a man that is running on a "Change We Can" platform he should be telling us
the truth and the hard truth is we are not going to be out of Iraq any time soon and the y all know it...
There is no way for our Armed Forces to keep up this pace...many are on 3rd and 4th tours and some have 5...There
is no way our economy can keep this pace...with the price of gas and its affect on other items such as milk and travel and
much more and the people of this country can not keep up pace either.
Iraq
There here have been 4,313 coalition deaths -- 4,005 Americans, two Australians, 176 Britons, 13  Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean,
three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the
war in Iraq as of March 28, 2008
Afghanistan
There have been 777 coalition deaths -- 487 Americans, four Australians, 89 Britons, 81 Canadians, two Czech,
12 Danes, 14 Dutch, two Estonians, one Finn, 12 French, 22 Germans, 11 Italians, three Norwegians, three Poles, two Portuguese,
six Romanians, one South Korean, 23 Spaniards, two Swedes -- in the war on terror as of March 28, 2008.
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