U.S. Iraq war casualties reach new milestone

[Diomedes]

4,158

The pace is slow but steady still.

[Phanatic]

Iraq vets and post-traumatic stress: No easy answers
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/24/ptsd.struggle/index.html

Buddy of mine is/was a blackhawk pilot and did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was shot down in Iraq I think and is being discharged for post traumatic stress. Those that survive aren't completly whole when they get back. War is hell...

[Diomedes]

4,186

[shorebird]

Geez Dio, I can't help but have your posting get to me. I'm not saying you should stop. I really don't know what I'm saying, which fits most my post.

Everytime that number gets bigger, it wrenches my gut. A acquaintance in my neighborhood has a son who is a Marine in Iraq. He's pretty fanatical about it and his father says he's having the time of his life. I shake my head at that. I don't think he or anyone in his family thinks about how close he could be to being one of those numbers.

This is a farged up world we live in when a person can be at war having the time of his life.

[Rome]

Useless & meaningless deaths for corporate profits should make you sick to your stomach.

[Diomedes]

I find that many people have no idea how many U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq.  People guess numbers between 2 and 7 thousand when I ask them.

Nevermind how many have been injured, or how many Iraqi civilians have died.

Bush Cheney did a sickening job executing a war without involving the people with his no-draft, all volunteer, mercenary-augmented plan.  So few people have a direct stake in it that they're happy to just go shopping and not think about it.

[MadMarchHare]

While I agree, I sure as hell don't want to see my son drafted to die in a bullshtein war so oil execs can increase their profit margins.

[Diomedes]

Which is exactly why the draft was never an option to Bush Cheney.  They don't want you to have a stake because you might do something crazy like encourage your boy to dodge the draft, or protest the war, or possibly even organize people against it.

Without a direct connection, you are much less willing to oppose the war in a meaningful way.  Without a draft, the government doesn't have to explain why so many are dodging it.

Without a draft, the Bush Cheney gang could do whatever they want with the military.  And boy, did they.

[Rome]

If a draft was instituted and all deferments were disallowed the war would be over in exactly 10 minutes.

[Geowhizzer]

Congress would not vote to reinstate the draft, because it would cause 75% of them the next election.

[Phanatic]

The Draft is a neat idea to make those that would wage war accountable but it isn't realistic. I prefer realistic goals that can actually be accomplished to conceptual pipe dreams.

[Diomedes]

The draft should be mandatory during wartime.  And during peacetime, some kind of service should be mandatory, either civil or military.

[Phanatic]

Not going to happen. People won't support it.

[Diomedes]

People can suck my meatcicle.  This prima donna nation needs to learn how to serve and work again.

[General_Failure]

Will that be an option along with civil and military service?