Operation Iraqi Freedom Update

It's time to update our progress in the Iraq war...

To date, there have been 2,460 coalition deaths, of which 2,257 are Americans. For those of you who care about the facts, during the presidential debates, John Kerry pointed out that the US was bearing 90% of the casualties due to Bush's failure to obtain true cooperation with other nations. Bush mocked Kerry, stating that we had a multinational coalition and that John Kerry's numbers were not right. In fact, 91.7% of the deaths are now Americans. So far, over 16,000 US troops have been wounded. Many of these people have lost limbs, eyes, and digits. Some are paralyzed. Many have permanent brain damage.

Even worse is the Iraqi death toll; even Bush admits that 30,000 Iraqis have been killed since we invaded. That's more than 10 times the number of people killed in 9-11. For those of you who like fairness, you can rest assured that we have really paid the Iraqis back for participating in 9-11 and aiding Al Qaeda. Oh wait... They had nothing to do with 9-11 or Al Qaeda. Ooops.

To date, we've spent over 320 billion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- most of which was spent in Iraq. For those of you who like numbers, that's more than $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. We'll be up past $400 billion by the end of this year; since Bush destroyed our budget surplus when he took over, that's equivalent to a loan of $5,424 for a typical family of four. For those of you who like money, imagine what could have been done with that money (other than kill people and destroy a country).

For those of you who like well-trained Iraqi troops, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace testified to Congress today that only one Iraqi army battalion is capable of fighting without U.S. help -- the same number as in September, when U.S. commanders admitted that the number of trained battalions had dropped from three to one. (Now that is progress!)

For those of you who like oil, you will be pleased to note that Iraqi oil revenues are actually LOWER than before the U.S.-led invasion nearly three years ago. And this is after oil prices have skyrocketed over the last year and a half.

For those of you who like to be reminded of the lies that they were told, remember when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz stated that “There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”? Doesn't seem like ole' Wolfey was right on this one, does it?

For those of you who like really amazingly huge whoppers, remember when Andrew Natsios, USAID Administrator, stated that "Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution... this is it for the US. ... the American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this." Hmmmm... Here's a guy who was selling the Iraq war, stating that the cost to us would be only $1.7 billion. We're now approaching $300 billion. Does this guy still have his job??? A better question is why does Bush still have his job? -- All these fools work for him.

Anyway, as you can see, the Iraq war has been a smashing success -- if not for the Iraqis, and if not for the US taxpayers, and if not for the US troops, then certainly for contractors like Halliburton and certainly for the oil companies!

With all of these facts, we can truly smile and state with full confidence "Mission Accomplished".

-John Locke