Missing Soldiers Found

Tragic.

Remains of two US soldiers missing in Iraq since their capture more than a year ago have been found, a US defense official said Friday.

The families of Private Byron Fouty, 19, and Sergeant Alex Jimenez, 25, have been notified by the army.

"They have been returned from Iraq," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Rest in peace.

10 American Dead in Iraq in 8 Days in June

With all the bizarre crowing about the fact that only 19 Americans were killed in Iraq in the 31 days of May, are we going to now hear from those same cheerleaders that they were wrong, misguided, or just continuously stupid since there have been 10 Americans killed in just 8 days in June?

No. Of course not. Because more deaths is something to crow about, too.

Sick.

Deepest condolences to the families and friends of the fallen.

Only 19 Unnecessary U.S. Deaths Last Month

It's hard to know how to respond to crowing by many today about the fact that only 19 U.S. military personnel were killed in the month of May. It's definitely better than April, when 54 were killed. If it jumps back up to 54 next month, will those crowing today say they were mistaken, and that "the surge is not working"? No, because more deaths mean the surge is working, too.

We have always been at "working" with the surge.

That brings us to 4,083 dead Americans. And more Iraqis than we bother to count.

Bush and Sending the Wrong Signal

Our pathetic excuse for a president said yesterday that he quit playing golf in August 2003 after the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed the UN's top official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Bush said the event moved him to give up the game he loved out of respect for the men and women he sent to war. He said it "sends the wrong signal."

He was lying, it turns out, having played golf two months later. A round of golf is not the kind of thing you do without noticing, nor is a catastrophic event like the one that happened on August 19, 2003, which took the life of a man Bush knew, the kind of thing you mix up with some other memorable event. Did it later occur to him, in some twisted idea of sacrifice for our soldiers, to stop playing golf? I don't know. Maybe. But something that happened seven months later tells me the man is incapable of even such a trite idea of honor.

In March, 2004, President Bush spoke at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner. March, 2004. This was seven months after his alleged conversion by bombing. You probably remember:

It's standard fare humor. Bush says he is preparing for a tough election fight; then on the large video screens a picture flashes showing him wearing a boxing robe while sitting at his desk. Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. There were funny bits about Skull and Bones, his mother, and Dick Cheney. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."

The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.

Somewhere around 550 American troops had been killed in Iraq by this time, and several thousands more had been shot or blown up and damaged forever. They had risked that fate for one reason: because Sadaam Hussein had WMDs. That's what they were told. And our president, out of his deep respect for the sacrifice of these courageous, mostly young, soldiers, a respect that drove him, he tells us, to not play golf because it would "send the wrong signal," deems it "good signal" worthy to make jokes - jokes obviously practiced and even with video accompaniment - about the very thing that those people gave their lives for. I'm supposed to believe, now, that George W. Bush gave much of a shit about the destruction and death he brought to those people?

No fucking way.

George Bush, you're a liar. I honestly can not at the moment think of a worse kind of one. You do more dishonor to the people you sent to unnecessary war with this pathetic attempt to rescue your reputation.

Some video, if you can stomach it.

Soldier/Blogger Killed in Iraq

Army Major Andrew Olmsted wrote a post earlier this year, in case he was killed. Sounds like a truly wonderful guy.

Last dispatch, and a photo, here at the Rocky Mountain News, where he also blogged.

All they will call you will be G.I.s

GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell doesn't want you to give too much thought to soldiers dying in Iraq:

Nobody is happy about losing lives, but remember - these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.

Nevermind them and their extended or extra tours or the worries or grieving of their families - they're " full-time professional soldiers". That's less than human. They're practially like robots, programmed to die (even in unneccessary, preemptive wars).

A song:

The Surge Blah Blah Blah

Something's surging:

In July, the civilian death toll was 1,753, and in June it was 1,227. The numbers are based on morgue, hospital and police records and come from officials in the ministries of Health, Defense and the Interior. The statistics appear to indicate that the increase in troops ordered by President Bush this year has done little to curb civilian bloodshed, despite U.S. military statements to the contrary.

Military statements like these ones:

Petraeus told the Australian that there had been a 75 percent reduction in religious and ethnic killing since last year, while the number of al Qaeda "kills and captures" was on the rise.

General Petraeus, our representative to the world.

10 More Gone

114 this month. 3,458 total, a fact the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff seems to think is isn't important enough to keep in his thoughts.