US forced onto the defensive over mounting toll in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030826/pl_afp/us_iraq&cid=1521&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US administration stepped up efforts to defend its "noble cause" in Iraq as the death toll among US troops since the end of major combat overtook the number killed during the invasion.

President George W. Bush was to give a major speech in the Missouri city of St. Louis on Tuesday to answer critics who have called for more troops to be sent to the troubled country.

But the administration's efforts were partly overshadowed by the news that more US forces have lost their lives in Iraq since Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1 than in the war to topple Saddam Hussein.

According to the Defense Department's latest official tally, 277 US troops have now been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom -- 139 since Bush's triumphant May 1 speech on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Unofficial tolls indicate that more than 140 have been killed in the past four months, and the symbolically important figures have been widely reported by the US media.

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[MUAD_DIB]

1. drip...drip...drip

[symbolman]

2. uh

WAS to give a speech? did he or not?

ALso, did anyone notice it was sandwiched between TWO fundraisers?

Just their shifty way of cheating taxpayers by using a vet event to pay for their fund raising..

[Neutrino]

3. Not a drop of Oil money, and that isn't going to change

no matter what "noble" plots are hatched to steal it.

[wryter2000]

4. Photo op rendered useless

Ol' Whistle Ass won't be using any of those pictures they took on the Abraham Lincoln. If he tries, the Dem nominee needs to ask what in hell he accomplished.

[gratuitous]

5. Okay, we're up to the "noble cause" stage

Man, this is like watching the Vietnam war at internet speed! Broadband, yet.

[NNN0LHI]

6. It is wierd to see history repeat itself once again in my lifetime

And as you say. At high speed no less. Remember the number of people who fell for the "noble cause" line back then too? At least for a while anyway.

Don

[gratuitous]

7. So, are we about to see the "nattering nabobs of negativism"?

Or the return of Baghdad Natalie (Maines) to follow Hanoi Jane?

[Jacobin]

8. I was hoping for some pusilanimous pussyfooting

[Ernesto]

9. "We'll be home in 6 months"

Is what this Marine was told in '66. Maybe if AWOL had enjoyed Vietnam like us normal un-priviledged vets, he'd have different views on the war experience.