Injured Soldier Denied Benefits

clipped from www.wtnh.com Ryan Riddle is a Connecticut veteran who has been fighting through that red tape ever since he was wounded in Iraq. Riddle received a commendation for his service at the checkpoint; the soldier who shot him got a reprimand. Riddle was discharged and moved home to Southington. He filed for service related benefits for the gun shot wound, and doctors at the Newington Veterans hospital told him there is no proof of his injury. Riddle said he was told doctors were not sure if he was shot on the streets of Hartford or in Iraq. Despite X-rays that clearly showed a bullet still lodged in Riddle's thigh the VA denied his claim saying "service records do not document a gunshot wound to the left thigh during service." Somehow, Riddle's service records had been lost. "I was taken a back, I didn't know what to say," said Riddle. "You know I thought when I served my country and fought a war that I'd at least be taken care of after it was done but it's just the system."

It's not just soldiers dying in Iraq that is messed up. We can't even seem to help those that have been injured and need our help when they get home. This is just one of many stories.

U.S. casualties will rise in next 90 days

clipped from www.realcities.com The U.S. military announced the deaths of 11 U.S. soldiers killed in combat along with an embedded journalist Sunday, and Iraqi officials said 163 civilians were killed or injured across the country. But still more carnage is likely over the next three months as additional U.S. forces arrive in Baghdad under President Bush's troop "surge" because "we're taking the fight to the enemy," a top U.S. military commander warned. Six of the American soldiers and a journalist working for a Russian publication were killed in Diyala Sunday when a roadside bomb struck the vehicle in which they were traveling, the U.S. military said in a statement. "There are going to be increased (U.S.) casualties during this surge because we're taking the fight to the enemy," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch "We're going to do everything we can do to preclude that from happening." But he added: "This is indeed combat operations. This is indeed war. And it's against a lethal enemy."

Again... quoting someone smarter than me that I can't remember... how many dead bodies does it take to support the ego of this President?

Iraq Civil War - Daily Death Count

clipped from www.realcities.com The daily Iraq violence report is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers Special Correspondent Hussein Kadhim in Baghdad - Around 9,00 am, an IED explosion targeted an American convoy in Al Baladiyat neighborhood north east Baghdad. The US troops closed the area and no casualties were reported. - 2 citizens were killed and 2 others were injured in an American bombing targeted Al Orfelli neighborhood, a part of Sadr city east Baghdad yesterday evening. - 2 civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded in an IED explosion targeted the civilians in Al Wathba intersection downtown Baghdad around 1,30 pm. - A civilian was killed and 3 others were wounded in a parked car bomb explosion 20th street in Bayaa neighborhood south west Baghdad around at 3,00 pm. - 2 civilians were killed and 11 injured when a mortar shell hit Abo disheer neighborhood south Baghdad at 3,00 pm. - 4 citizens were killed and 10 were injured in a parked car bomb explosion - 26 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today.

Yes, Iraq is in a full Civil War. Many people die there every day that we never hear about. Above is just a sampling.

Irag is in a Civil War largely because of our presence there. Regardless, now our soldiers are in the middle of a fight that is not ours. Our presence there is not stopping the violence and is only prolonging the inevitable....full-scale Civil War for control of that country. It isn't our fight.

Car Bombs Don't Count

clipped from www.realcities.com WASHINGTON - U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians. Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. President Bush explained why in a television interview on Tuesday. "If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory," he told TV interviewer Charlie Rose. Others, however, say that not counting bombing victims skews the evidence of how well the Baghdad security plan is protecting the civilian population - one of the surge's main goals.

You have to read this whole article. Bush wanted more troops there to protect the Iraqis, yet doesn't count dead Iraqis killed by car bombs or other explosive devices. Is it me or does that just not make sense??

Buying the War

clipped from www.pbs.org Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit and delivered a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking" example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? "What the conservative media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders for the White House from the beginning and were simply continuing to rally the public behind the President — no questions asked.

On Wednesday, April 25 at 9 p.m. on PBS, a new PBS series BILL MOYERS JOURNAL premieres at a special time with "Buying the War," a 90-minute documentary that explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

In "Buying the War" Bill Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes document the reporting of Walcott, Landay and Strobel, the Knight Ridder team that burrowed deep into the intelligence agencies to try and determine whether there was any evidence for the Bush Administration's case for war. "Many of the things that were said about Iraq didn't make sense," says Walcott. "And that really prompts you to ask, 'Wait a minute. Is this true? Does everyone agree that this is true? Does anyone think this is not true?'"

This seems like a show really worth watching.

Lynch, Tillman's brother: U.S. military lied

clipped from www.cnn.com Former Pfc. Jessica Lynch and the brother of Army Ranger Pat Tillman told a House panel Tuesday that the U.S. military lied about Tillman's death and Lynch's capture. After her vehicle was attacked in Iraq in March 2003, Lynch suffered a mangled spinal column, broken arm, crushed foot, shattered femur and even a sexual assault. But it only added insult to injury, literally, when she returned to her parents' home in West Virginia, which "was under siege by media all repeating the story of the little girl 'Rambo' from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting," Lynch said. An equally blunt Kevin Tillman, Pat Tillman's brother, told the panel that the military tried to spin his brother's 2004 death to deflect attention from emerging failings in the Afghanistan war. Even after it became clear the report was bogus, the military clung to the "utter fiction" that Pat Tillman was killed by a member of his platoon who was following the rules of engagement, the brother said.

Just a reminder how corrupt this whole war has been from start to finish. Bush started it with lies, lied about how soldiers died, and continues to lie today about the way to end this thing. Enough is enough isn't it?

Nine U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq suicide attack

clipped from www.reuters.com BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded 20 others at a military outpost north of Baghdad on Monday in one of the worst attacks on American ground forces since the invasion in 2003. While frontal assaults by insurgents against heavily fortified U.S. bases in Iraq are rare, a two-month old security plan that places troops at less protected garrisons in Baghdad and neighboring areas has exposed them to greater risk. The volatile region has a mixed population of Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites and U.S. commanders sent extra troops there in March to combat entrenched insurgents and al Qaeda militants. At least 85 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq this month, making April the deadliest since December, when 112 were killed.

This news pretty much put me over the top this morning. I have been thinking about this for awhile and I am just fed up with this whole "war" and our men and women dying in Iraq. I think "we the people" need to speak up more loudly and clearly. We are distracted with so many other issues and "news" that we forget that every day our fellow Americans die for really no reason except George Bush's ego. I am pretty tired of the daily death toll mounting and I for one want to remind us all to high cost of Bush's actions.