DoD Identifies Army Casualty (#1960)

[bluestateguy]

The people at icasualties.org see to it that these hospital deaths at Walter Reed or in Germany are counted in the total. That makes it harder for the Pentagon to cover up casualty reports.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/nr20051011-4882.html

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Lt. Col. Leon G. James II, 46, of Sackets Harbor, N.Y., died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 10, of injuries sustained in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sep. 26, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations. James was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 314th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 78th Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.

[deadparrot]

1. RIP.

...

[democrank]

2. I hope all who supported

George Bush and his despicable war lies someday come face to face with a wall of photos of the people they sent to their deaths.

[Kralizec]

3. Lt. Col., wow, getting high in the officers now... n/t

[are_we_united_yet]

4. 1960 too many. Please God....

No more.

[bluestateguy]

5. I believe that is the highest ranking officer to be killed by hostile fire

There was 1 other Lt. Col. killed 2 years ago in the attack on the Al Rashid Hotel (?). That was during Paul Wolfowitz's visit, and he apparently was the target.

[ninkasi]

6. Aren't they rich enough already?

How many more lives will have to be sacrificed to sate their lust for money? I truly believe that greed at the level the elite are practicing now is some form of psychosis. Will they ever have enough?

[Erika]

7. They annointed Bush in 2000

and will take us for every cent, make no mistake. W has no problem with bankrupting our country as long as his rich buddies, and he, get their share. No problem at all.

[ninkasi]

8. It's not getting their share that I question...

It's getting theirs, and everybody elses's share that troubles me. How many fortunes does a person need? How many houses can they visit, all expensive houses, furnished with more money than you or I will ever see in our lifetimes. How many pairs of shoes, and diamond rings, and designer clothes, can they own, before it's enough?

I'm bitching because their greed is so great that it's not just causing an income gap...it's causing something greater than the Grand Canyon, and it's costing people their lives. When lives are sacrificed to make the already wealthy even wealthier, then it's time to draw the line, and do something.

I keep hoping that some of our Democratic leaders, except for the same brave ones, will step forward and at least try. Yes, there are a few who speak up, and who try. The rest are so afraid of offending their corporate donors that they either remain silent, or mumble tepid responses, nothing which will offend their own election donations.

I am in my sixties, and have a condition which causes chronic pain. If I knew I were to die tomorrow, I would not shed a tear for myself, or have many regrets. I do, however, care about the world my children, my grandchildren, and my one great-grandchild,and yours, will live in. For that reason, I can't fathom why ordinary people continue to permit a man who has our welfare as the last thing on his agenda to continue to ruin our country.

[bos1]

10. Erika, Ninkasi, these are my thoughts too

It's one thing to get rich, and another to be sabotaging the country to get rich. I look at Germany -- as craven and greedy of a nation as any other, yet they also "take care of their own" and are currently the world's number one exporter. This is a monumental feat considering it is also an advanced welfare state with strong unions and high wages, etc. The German model proves that the US could still be the rich and powerful while also taking care of its own, but instead it's run by outsourcing short-term-profit driven slash-and-burn types, by war profiteers and strip-miners. They will destroy their own country for a 2% annual increase in profit and then go live in gated communities -- or the Bahamas.

Minor case in point is former Education Secretary William Bennett, who was in the news recently for other reasons, admitting he wanted public schools to be so poorly run and funded that they would fail so that private schools and vouchers will triumph (and he and all this privatizing cronies would get richer).

I think the ideology in these wars is ultimately just an excuse -- like in Vietnam -- for war profiteers to get rich, and they will prolong these mass murders, I mean wars, as long as possible.

It is the few awesome Americans like Sibel Edmonds and Scott Ritter that keep me from giving up all hope, which the last few years, and especially the last few months, have just about made me do.

Sorry about the rant.

[ninkasi]

11. No need to apologize from my point of view...

You are 100% correct, and I do not consider your post a rant, but rather examples of the inequities which are destroying our country. The right wing fundies are nothing but tools, and fools, who are furthering the agenda of the wealthy.

They succeed in getting conservatives elected based on their views abut abortion and gay marriage, and are blind to the economic ruin which is the real agenda of the hardliner neocons. In my own naive way, if the government is neutral about something I feel strongly about...gay marriage, for example...I am content as long as I am not prohibited in marrying the person of my choice.

On the other hand, the fundies are not happy to be content to marry somebody of the opposite sex,they also want to prohibit others from marrying someone they love if the person is of the same sex. To me, it seems quite simple...let each person follow their own desires, as long as they are not inflicted on others.

That is the major sticking point. The neocons don't want to just be able to live as they wish, they also want the ability to dictate how the rest of us live. This seems to me to be contrary to a country which presumes to point themselves out to the world as a country of "freedom".

[MADem]

9. 1960--people born that year are 45 this year

Too old to join the active forces, and too old for the reserves (edit, I cannot add_).

I said this in another thread, but as these numbers get closer to the BIRTH YEARS of those who could get involved in this conflict, by way of a draft, perhaps more folks will start to pay attention.

We all pay attention when we see a number we know, be it our house number or our birth year....