Well, the nearly foot of snow that blanked the countryside here a few days ago is mostly gone except for where a snow plow or an industrious shoveler piled the snow high. The birds have returned, and we are awakened by sunlight through the window, rather than a rude alarm clock – all sure signs that spring has finally sprung. Several weeks ago, when Joe Biden was blathering on about how we hadn’t trained a single Iraqi security person, Lex opined that if the Iraqi Security Forces hadn’t stepped up by spring, we might be in for a long haul in Iraq.
Yesterday I spent 40 minutes Googleing Iraqi casualties in the hope of finding that the Iraqis were in fact stepping up. What I found is interesting. When I used “Iraq war casualties” as the search, I got a plethora of references to American casualties, by name, location, circumstance, home town and state, which is as it should be. Next were coalition casualty lists with same information to include National origin. Next were Iraqi civilian casualties numbers with much less detail, most stating as a simple fact - with no real that proof - that there have been over 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed in the war. So I changed to what I thought was a more specific search “Iraqi war casualties”. I got much the same list. Finally, I changed my search to “Iraqi Security Forces Casualties” I got… you guessed it the same list – with exception of some references to Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates where Bush – Cheney had to remind Kerry - Edwards that the Iraqis were part of the coalition and were sustaining the highest percentage of the casualties.
Were this my real job, I’d have stuck with my research until I found what I was looking for. But, it’s a hobby, and rather silly one at that. So, I didn’t feel it necessary to waste too much time for the ten or so people a day that might stumble onto this page.
Besides, what I didn’t find was reveling. Why aren’t there scores of stories heralding the sacrifice of the Iraqi Security Forces? Why aren’t the Iraqi Security Force casualties included with the coalition casualties? I think it is because our defeatist left leaning media know what Lex knows. That is - that the Iraqis are stepping up and as a result are taking brunt of the casualties. This tells me that the Iraqis are willing to fight and die for a chance at Democracy. This is a sign that we are winning.
Never ones to put the things America does in positive light, the media just ignore this story. Instead, they dwell on the number of bombs going off rather than the fact that the bombers were stopped short of their intended target by Iraqi Security Forces. Anyone with a gripe about the US in Iraq is given full coverage. The young Iraqi widow whose husband died stopping a garbage truck full of explosives short of its target is ignored – unless she condemns the coalition.
Well Joe there are a lot Iraqi Security Force personnel dying in the line of duty. Instead of ridiculing them and their mentors, how about giving them a little praise for their noble efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment