Independent:"A huge toll was feared after mortar rounds hit an Iraqi National Guard headquarters north of Baghdad. Officials said more than 100 Iraqis were killed and wounded, but there was no breakdown giving the number of fatalaities. Six mortar rounds fell on National Guard offices in an early morning attack in Mashahidan, 25 miles north of Baghdad, said Iraqi police and National Guard officers under condition of anonymity.US Blackhawk helicopters evacuated all the injured, police said. "

Newsday: "Car bombs killed five U.S. troops in Iraq, the U.S. military said Saturday, the latest in a string of such attacks at the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Blasts also targeted five churches in the Iraqi capital. The two car bombs went off Friday, the military said. One, carried out by a suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden vehicle, targeted a U.S. patrol near the town of Qaim, an insurgent hotspot near the border with Syria, killing four U.S. troops...The other blast went off in the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad, killing a U.S. soldier assigned to Task Force Olympia." Meanwhile, two US soldiers traveling with a convoy in Afghanistan were killed by a bomb blast. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/10/16/afghan.blast/index.html Bush and his media toads' excuse? The start of Ramadan. Before that, the Iraqi constitution... next it will be Jan. elections. As the death count grows, so do the number of BushMedia excuses.

This article is inaccessible to nonsubscribers - but the headline, on the Marine Corps Times main page says it all: Our soldiers, stressed to the breaking point by conditions in Iraq, then beyond the breaking point by being forced to stay well beyond normal deployment times, are committing suicide at a high rate - all so Bush won't have the "politically inexpedient" necessity of admitting he needs to call up more troops to relieve those who have been at the front far too long.

MSNBC: "Nearly 8,000 troops have been wounded in Iraq with as many of two-thirds of them returning home with a brain injury, according to Dr. Henry Lew, of the VA Hospital in Palo Alto where Poole is being treated. One reason why the percentage is so high is that improvements in body armor mean soldiers are more likely to survive attacks than they would have been 10 years ago. 'The thing that's really particular about this war (is) the improvement in body armor technology, (meaning) the internal organs are very well protected,' Lew said. In many cases, brain injury cases go untreated. Alec Giess, 45, who suffered from TBI after he was thrown from his humvee, has signs of mental incapacity even while he fails to show signs of physical injury."

Robert Fisk wrote in 2003 - and, alas, the scenario has worsened: "Donald Rumsfeld says the American attack on Baghdad is "as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed" but he should not try telling that to five-year-old Doha Suheil. She looked at me yesterday morning, drip feed attached to her nose, a deep frown over her small face as she tried vainly to move the left side of her body. The cruise missile that exploded close to her home in the Radwaniyeh suburb of Baghdad blasted shrapnel into her tiny legs ­ they were bound up with gauze ­ and, far more seriously, into her spine. Now she has lost all movement in her left leg. Her mother bends over the bed and straightens her right leg which the little girl thrashes around outside the blanket. Somehow, Doha's mother thinks that if her child's two legs lie straight beside each other, her daughter will recover from her paralysis."

These photos are NOT for those easily upset or weak of stomach. They are photos of shrapnel wounds. Although taken in Vietnam, the nature of shrapnel wounds, needless to say, has not changed. It is the most common type of injury being sustained by both US/Allied troops and civilians in Iraq. This is what war really looks like. So while Bush preens and struts before the cameras, pumping his fist in football-game mentality glee, this is the hell our our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, Iraqi neighbors are enduring.

Yahoo: "Three bombs exploded at a neighborhood celebration Thursday in western Baghdad, killing 35 children and seven adults. The bombs in Baghdad's al-Amel neighborhood caused the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the conflict began. The children...had been drawn to the scene by American soldiers handing out candy." The idea was to get the kids to participate in a Bushie "everything's going great" photo op at a sewage plant opening. When the "feel good" photo op turned to a bloodbath, NBC ghoulishly "revamped" its propaganda plan and instead showed photos of kids with their arms blown off to highlight how evil the insurgents are. The same network, of course, that won't show images of soldiers' coffins.

Alison Young: "The violent guerrilla tactics used by insurgents in Iraq will take a considerable toll on the mental health of troops, resulting in a lifetime of disability payments for many of those who return from war, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi said Tuesday. So far, 20 percent of Iraq veterans who have sought VA health care did so for mental health issues, VA officials said. They expect those numbers to grow since many who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses haven't yet sought care. Paying to compensate the new veterans is sure to add to the $600 billion the government expects to spend in disability payments over the next three decades." Yet even as the VA bill rises, Bush continues to hack away at the already-strained resources of the VA through budget cuts and "corporate-style" reshuffling of resources.

Bush never counts the cost to anyone but himself in anything he does. So he could care less that the refugee crisis he has created by turning Iraq into a bloodbath is falling on the shoulders of others - namely the EU. Bush's ally Blair is no better. The UK (reports ECRE "is the only country that has officially announced a program for the forced return of Iraqi asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected." The future for such people is grim indeed, reports ECRE. "The countries reporting the highest number of Iraqi refugees are Denmark (12,000), Norway (15,000), Sweden (60-70,000), and Germany (150,000)." In short, these compassionate nations are trying to clean up the mess being made by Bush and Blair. And these statistics were from April, 2004 - the stream of refugees since then has steadily grown as the chaos in Iraq worsens.

Bellaciao (European site) "At the U.S. military hospital on a wooded hilltop here [in Germany], the cost of the Iraq war is measured in amputated limbs, burst eyeballs, shrapnel-torn bodies and shattered lives. They're the seriously wounded U.S. soldiers who arrive daily at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a growing human toll that belies American election talk of improving times in Iraq. They're the maimed and the scarred that hospital staff believe are largely invisible to an American public ignorant of their suffering. 'They have no idea what's going on here, none whatsoever,' says Col. Earl Hecker, a critical care doctor who trained at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. The broken bodies move some of the hospital's military staff to question a war producing the most American casualties since Vietnam. And they reduce the chief surgeon to tears. 'It breaks your heart,' says Lt.-Col. Ronald Place."

Zaman Daily: "In one month, 3000 children died in Iraq; on average, that is 100 per day. Though many are innocent victims of incessant clashes, most succumb to malnourishment and unsanitary living conditions [caused in large part by the systematic destruction of Iraq's infrastructure via the pre-invasion bombing, trashing sewage and water purification plants]. The shortage of drugs and modern equipment is worse than when Saddam Hussein was in power - when international embargoes isolated the country. Shells and shrapnel, grenades and bombs are other factors affecting the health of children. According to disclosures from the Health Care Ministry, children are suffering from diseases that were never reported before the war. Rimad Cuburi, a doctor in one of the country's largest children's hospitals, said the ailments arouse from some of the American weaponry." So this is what the Bush and his media goons are so eager to perpetuate at all costs? The slaughter of children?

Sunday Times: "At least seven Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded in a fresh US airstrike in Fallujah, medics said today. The military said it had targeted a meeting place for operatives of the presumed al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi. Dr Ali Hiyad, of the main hospital in the rebel city, said: 'We have received seven dead and 11 wounded, including women and children.' The US military said an airstrike about 10pm local time (4am AEST) was aimed at 'terrorists meeting in the Jolan district of Fallujah'." As usual, the Pentagon denies that anyone but "rebels" were targeted. And, as usual, the media refuses to provide the public with the basic facts - one being that Fallujah is the size of Oklahoma City - nearly 500,000 inhabitants. If you bomb and blow things up, there is no such thing as no collateral damage.

AP: "[While] no official, reliable figures exist for [Iraq], private estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000 killed since the United States invaded in March 2003. The violent deaths recorded in the leather ledger at the Sheik Omar Clinic come from only one of Iraq's 18 provinces and do not cover people who died in such flashpoint cities as Najaf, Karbala, Fallujah, Tikrit and Ramadi. Iraqi dead include not only insurgents, police and soldiers but also civilian men, women and children caught in crossfire, blown apart by explosives or shot by mistake - both by fellow Iraqis or by American soldiers and their multinational allies. And they include the victims of crime that has surged in the instability that followed the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime."

Gee, we didn't hear Bush mention these figures in his speech. Guess he didn't want Americans to know that when he says "Freedom is on the march" he means a Death March. Thanks to the Pentagon's clever fudging of figures, Bush managed to go into the GOP Convention without having the press report the real casualty figures - especially the one the Repubs have dreaded: the 1,000 mark of soldiers killed. Through a deceptive "accounting" scheme the Pentagon has omitted 35 dead from their tally by listing them as "unnamed" though "reported dead." The actual death toll is 1,013, while the number of casualties, counting illness, psychiatric evacuations, and wounded in action and accidents is nearly 14,000.

Reuters: "The U.S. military death toll in Iraq is approaching 1,000, with the danger faced by American troops undiminished in the two months since the formation of an interim government. The United States transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on June 28, officially ending the occupation. But more than 137,000 U.S. troops and 23,000 allied foreign soldiers remain in Iraq protecting Allawi's government and fighting a persistent insurgency that has left much of the country a battleground. Since the March 2003 invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein, 976 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, the Pentagon said on Friday, while another 6,916 have been wounded. The average monthly U.S. military death toll has been about 55 troops in the 17-1/2 months of war. Forty-two U.S. troops died in Iraq in June. After the hand-over, 54 were killed in July and 66 in August."

Reuters: "Iraq is struggling to cope with the fiercest attack yet on its northern oil export network, while flows to southern export terminals have been steady after recovering from sabotage, officials say. Fire was still raging on the northern pipeline on Friday after it was attacked on Thursday in the Riad area, around 70 km (45 miles) southwest of the oil centre of Kirkuk. 'This is the strongest assault on the northern pipeline we have seen. The fire could be put out in two days if we manage to erect sand walls to isolate it,' said Ahmad al-Ubaidi, a senior North Oil Company security official." The attack is likely to shake confidence in the U.S.-backed government's ability to sustain oil exports and protect the infrastructure at a time when high oil prices are bringing windfall revenues to other Arab countries." Windfall profits to Bush's pals who, as they promised him, rigged an artificial dip in oil prices to coincide with the opening of the GOP convention.

The Star: "Oil exports from southern Iraq have been brought to a complete halt, a senior oil official said today, following a spate of pipeline attacks launched by insurgents trying to undermine the volatile nation's interim government. In Baghdad, military officials and representatives of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr held talks Sunday aimed at reducing violence in the restive Baghdad slum of Sadr City. Clashes there killed 10 people on Saturday, officials said. Oil flows out of the southern pipelines â?? which account for 90 per cent of Iraq's exports â?? ceased late Sunday and were not likely to resume for at least a week, an official from South Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. "Oil exports from the port of Basra have completely stopped since last night," the official said today. A halt in southern oil exports costs Iraq about $60 million (U.S.) a day in lost income at current global crude prices."

BBC: "There is widespread - and, I sense, slowly growing - mystification about the Iraq war of George Bush and Tony Blair. A cartoon in the Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina shows a car carrying the Bush Re-Election Bandwagon, complete with trombones and tuba blaring out of the rear windows. But the car is held up at a railroad crossing - the train passing by is carrying a military tank marked "Iraq". People are asking more and more: was it worth it? The question is about economics and about the human cost. The war and its aftermath is costing billions of dollars to a nation with huge trade and budget deficits. And it's costing lives. The American death toll is clocking steadily up towards 1,000 and the number of seriously injured is about 7,000 - a figure scarcely reported here." That's because the lying, conscienceless media doesn't get it, either.

Al Jazeera: "A roadside bomb has exploded killing one US soldier and taking the number of US military dead since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 above 900. Major Neal O'Brien of the 1st Infantry Division said the most recent soldier killed was on patrol in a Bradley fighting vehicle in Duluiyah, 72km north of Baghdad, when a bomb detonated shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Another US soldier was killed and six others wounded when their patrol hit a road side bomb early on Wednesday in Duluiya, north of Baghdad, a US military spokesman said. On Tuesday two US marines and two US soldiers were killed in action in Anbar province, an area west of Baghdad. At least 896 US soldiers have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to a count of names of the dead, released by the Pentagon. The latest deaths raise the toll to 901."

AP: "[On Tuesday, July 20], the American military said two U.S. Marines and two U.S. soldiers were killed in action in Anbar Province, a Sunni-dominated area west of Baghdad, bringing the death toll of U.S. service members in Iraq to nearly 900. Two Marines were killed in separate incidents Tuesday while conducting "security and stability operations." One soldier was killed Monday, and a second died Monday of wounds. At least 895 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to a count of names of the dead released by the Pentagon. The latest deaths would raise the toll to 899.

"With tens of thousands of their citizen soldiers now deployed in Iraq, many of the nation's governors complained on Sunday to senior Pentagon officials that they were facing severe manpower shortages in guarding prisoners, fighting wildfires, preparing for hurricanes and floods and policing the streets... Much of the concern has focused on wildfires, which have started to destroy vast sections of forests in several Western states. The governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat, said the troop deployment had left his National Guard with half the usual number of firefighters because about 400 of them were overseas while a hot, dry summer was already producing significant fires... In Arizona, officials say, more than a hundred prison guards are serving overseas, leaving their already crowded prisons badly short-staffed... In Virginia, the concern is hurricanes; in Missouri, floods."

Boston Globe: "Nearly as many US soldiers lost their lives in Iraq in the first half of July as in all of June, even as Iraqi insurgents seem to have shifted focus from attacking US targets to aiming instead at Iraqi security forces and government officials. June was substantially less violent for US and coalition troops than the two preceding months, fueling hopes that US casualties were on the downswing. However, military officials and defense specialists are increasingly concerned that the guerrilla war could last for years and the number of dead could climb into the thousands.Since the June 28 handover of power, the 160,000 coalition forces have averaged more than two deaths a day, among the highest rate of losses since the war began 15 months ago. By Saturday, 36 US soldiers had died this month, compared with 42 last month, according to a Globe analysis of official statistics."

USA Today is now providing a national service by keeping track of US casualties in regular summaries. This week's summary reveals that 848 US soldiers have died so far in the war, 710 of them since Bush declared an "end to major conflict." In June, over 1 soldier has died each day - 34 killed in the first 26 days. Some of these deaths were apparently caused by sheer cumulative stress - temperatures in Iraq are now regularly over 100 degrees. For example, Army Pfc. Melissa Hobart, 22, Ladson, S.C.; collapsed while on guard duty and died in Baghdad on June 6.

Baltimore Sun: "The mounting deaths and injuries to civilian contractors in Iraq could cost the federal government millions of dollars for hundreds of workers' compensation claims. Federal law requires all U.S. government contractors and subcontractors to obtain workers' compensation insurance for civilian employees who work overseas. If an injury or death claim is related to a 'war-risk hazard,' the War Hazards Compensation Act provides for government reimbursement to insurance carriers. Nearly half the 771 injury claims filed by U.S. contractors so far this year occurred in Iraq -- 345. Of the 66 deaths reported as of last week, all but nine occurred in Iraq. Since January 2003, there have been claims for 476 injuries and 80 deaths in Iraq." The Bush gov. has promised to reimburse insurers with taxpayer dollars.

"In what has increasingly become an outsourced war, the Coalition Provisional Authority has just added half a billion dollars to the amount being spent on private security contractors. The role of such mercenaries has taken on new dimensions in Iraq. Heavily-armed personnel frequently engage in work traditionally done by the military, though they may not be sufficiently trained for the task ...The high demand is attracting a curious mix of potential mercenaries -- from battle-tested soldiers of fortune who fought in the Balkans during the 1990s to inexperienced security officers and would-be soldiers looking for excitement."

So now the Bush cartel has its little puppet government in place and thus can be assured that US troops will not be asked to leave.With the stage thus set, the Pentagon this week released the bad news that thousands of soldiers nearing the end of their enlistments will not be allowed to leave the military - even if they've already served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead of going home, they are going to kept in, or shipped back to, the fronts of the Bush war. Once again, the price for Bush's failure to work with the world community - who found his latest Iraq resolutions (in which the Iraqis had no part in crafting) "deeply flawed" - is being paid for by our soldiers - in arms, legs, eyes, and lives.

Reuters: "The United States paid Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress at least $33 million since March 2000, according to a congressional report made public on Thursday. The report by the Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, found $33 million in funds from the State Department and did not include any funds from the Pentagon or other U.S. agencies, a congressional source told."

Paul Krugman writes, "Given this history, one might have expected [Bush] to show some contrition - to promise to change his ways and to offer at least a pretense that Congress would henceforth have some say in how money was spent. But the tone of the cover letter Mr. Bush sent with last week's budget request can best be described as contemptuous: it's up to Congress to 'ensure that our men and women in uniform continue to have the resources they need when they need them.' This from an administration that, by rejecting warnings from military professionals, ensured that our men and women in uniform didn't have remotely enough resources to do the job. The budget request itself was almost a caricature of the administration's 'just trust us' approach to governing. It ran to less than a page, with no supporting information. Of the $25 billion, $5 billion is purely a slush fund, to be used at the secretary of defense's discretion." Not a Penny More for Iraq! http://democrats.com/notapenny

"From their first days as 'Screaming Eagles,' the soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne Division are taught to be ready for anything. As the force's proud creed goes: 'First in, last out.' But at its home base - after a long year in Iraq that wreaked havoc with the blades of its helicopters, the sights of its guns and the nerves of its soldiers - the 101st is as far from ready as it has ever been... The 101st has no choice but to fix itself. And fast... the Pentagon must prepare these soldiers to return to the fight... This is a new experience for the Army. In World War II, conscript troops fought for the duration and came home to stay. In Vietnam, soldiers drafted for two-year stretches met up with units already in combat. In Iraq, a volunteer Army that for decades has been largely a peacetime force is being asked to fight hard for a year or more, come home, and gear up to go back again, with no end in sight."

Nico Pitney writes, "Three points stick out from today's Washington Post piece examining the economic benefits of defense spending. One is an idea of the role the Pentagon has played in the recent rebound (by certain indices, not all) in the economy. 'In the first three months of this year, defense work accounted for nearly 16 percent of the nation's economic growth, according to the Commerce Department. Military spending leaped 15.1 percent to an annualized rate of $537.4 billion, up from $463.3 billion in the comparable period of 2003, when Bush declared major combat operations in Iraq over.' Anecdotal evidence suggests that military subsidies have made a 'significant contribution' to the 708,000 private sector jobs created this year, the article states... Finally, the article mentions this incredible fact: 'In inflation-adjusted terms, the war's cost will surpass the United States' $199 billion share of World War I sometime next year.' "

BBC: "Police in southern Iraq have arrested two people over a grenade attack which killed a Dutch soldier - the first fatality suffered by the contingent. A second soldier was wounded in the attack, which occurred in the southern city of Samawah on Monday evening. Iraqi police are questioning the suspects, who allegedly threw grenades from a scooter as they passed a four-man patrol on a Euphrates bridge. Some 1,260 Dutch soldiers are serving with the coalition in southern Iraq." A source has indicated that the incident is widely expected to result in the decision of the Dutch government to pull all of its troops out of Iraq by June 30.

USA Today: "Today, the fighting in Iraq has worsened, the Pentagon is keeping more troops in the field than it had planned, and the price tag keeps rising. That has prompted Republicans to join in complaints that the Bush administration has not come clean about the costs. 'Every ground squirrel in this country knows that it's going to be $50 (billion) to $75 billion in additional money this year,' said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. By refusing to level with Congress and the public about the true costs of the war, the administration delays a needed national debate on the difficult choices the government must make to pay for the Iraq operation at a time when it is saddled with a record $500 billion deficit. Even the military brass concedes that the Iraq and Afghan missions, which have already cost $150 billion, are running over budget... At roughly $4.7 billion a month, the tab for Iraq and Afghanistan is approaching the average cost of U.S. operations in Vietnam."

"Volunteers hunting for bodies in Fallujah find a woman and her daughter in their home, killed in the siege but undiscovered for days. Chanting mourners bury two boys caught in the crossfire of a Baghdad gunfight. A morgue in Basra overflows with torn and burned bodies from a suicide bombing. Victims - young and old, women and men, insurgents and innocents - have been piling up day by day, making April the deadliest month for Iraqis - and Americans - since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago."

Ted Koppel and ABC News' "Nightline" will pay tribute to the more than 500 American service men and women killed in action in Iraq by devoting the entire broadcast to reading the service members' names and showing their photographs. Entitled "The Fallen," the special "Nightline" broadcast will air FRIDAY APRIL 30 (11:35 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. ABC News will also simulcast this tribute live on its Jumbotron in New York City's Times Square. ABC News Radio will air excerpts of the program

Jamie Wilson, writing in the Guardian lays out the whole, sorry picture of what it really happening in Iraq - as opposed to the US media version -- which focuses on a battle here, a press statement there, a "patriotic human interest story" there. A few facts: electricity, water, and sewage are still down in many areas, with summer's heat coming rapidly on; 25% of all contractors have left the country, while 75% are holed up at bases; General Electric and Siemens have temporarily abandoned work on Iraq's vital Daura power plant - which is still unrestored. Meanwhile, the new bombings ordered by Bush are creating NEW reconstruction needs, and more chaos, leading to more reconstruction delays. Says Wilson: "Publicly, the British and US governments are trying to play down the extent of the problems."

While Bush makes sure the government funds the $100,000/yr salaries for mercenaries guarding the property and personnel of Halliburton, Bechtel and SAIS, our soldiers in Iraq are being criminally shortchanged. "An unofficial study by a defense consultant shows that U.S. soldiers do not have military vehicles, equipment or armor needed for protection against Iraqi uprisings -- consequently that has meant 25% more American casualties in Iraq. The study cites that of the 190 killed by landmines, improvised explosive devices, or rocket-propelled grenade attacks, 'almost all those were killed while in unprotected vehicles... perhaps 1 in 4 of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had had stronger armor around them.' Additionally, 'thousands more who were unprotected have suffered grievous wounds, such as the loss of limbs.' But Bush continues to withhold funding that military officials say is desperately needed to plug shortfalls in armor and protection equipment."

AP: "The number of wounded stands at 3,630, according to a Pentagon count that was updated last Friday. The total has grown by more than 600 since April 8, when it stood at 2,988. The death toll stands at 706.Just last Friday, the Pentagon said the troop death total stood at 685. April has been the deadliest month since the invasion, with at least 99 U.S. troops killed so far."

"Two Americans and a Jordanian were shot dead in Kosovo Saturday when emotions over Iraq apparently boiled over into a gunbattle between members of the U.N. law enforcement mission. U.N. police spokesman Neeraj Singh said two U.S. police officers and a Jordanian were killed and 10 Americans and one Austrian wounded in the shooting... The 10-minute shootout took place in the U.N. compound in ethnically divided Mitrovica... U.N. police sources said four Jordanian police officers had been arrested in connection with the shooting... A police source said it began with a row over Iraq."

"The US army's top think-tank yesterday severely criticised the Bush administration's preparations for attacking Iraq, saying 'the logic of war was flawed' by a belief that the US could 'win the war quickly and on the cheap'... The report by the Army War College says the administration should have known reconstruction would be long and arduous ...'While this emerging way of war looked to employ new concepts, such as shock and awe and effects-based operations, designed to win battles quickly, it had no new concept for accomplishing the time-intensive and labour intensive tasks of regime change more quickly and with less labour,' wrote Lt Col Antulio Echevarria, director of national security affairs at the college's Strategic Studies Institute."

NH Union Leader: "Military families threatened to wage a war of their own last night, as sadness turned to sharp anger at the Bush administration for keeping their loved ones in Iraq. It was another monthly meeting for relatives of reservists in the Londonderry-based 94th Military Police Company of the U.S. Army Reserve, but this one was unlike any other before it. Two days after learning their loved ones would not be leaving the Middle East as expected Sunday, the families said they're ready to launch a political fight. 'God forbid, if one soldier dies, there will be no end to anything any one of our members can do,' said Gerri Whittredge. 'I will be in Washington, D.C., at Mr. Bush's door, shoving his words down his throat.' Others said she would not be alone. 'We want the whole country to hear our story,' said Franklin resident Richard MacDonald, whose son, Adam MacDonald, 23, is a specialist in the company." We hear you and we support you wholeheartedly!

BBC: "The evacuation of more than 800 people comes amid growing concern about the hostage crisis in Iraq, where gunmen have killed an Italian captive. Three planes returned to Moscow from Baghdad on Thursday and four more flights are planned for Friday. Three Russians and five Ukrainians were abducted then freed in Iraq this week. While the Russian evacuation was in progress, Japan confirmed that three of its nationals abducted last week had been released unharmed. Russia plans to evacuate 553 Russians and 263 citizens from other former Soviet countries. "

Reuters: "Arabic television Al Jazeera said Iraqi kidnappers had killed an Italian hostage and were threatening to kill three others in response to Italy's refusal to withdraw its troops from Iraq. An Al Jazeera official told Reuters the channel received footage of the killing of the Italian but would not broadcast it 'We have the footage but we won't air it as it is too bloody. They slaughtered the hostage because of (Italian Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi's last remarks refusing to withdraw troops from Iraq,' the official told Reuters. Italy has confirmed that Italians working for a U.S. private security firm had gone missing. The kidnappings have added to pressure from some of Italy's opposition groups for the immediate withdrawal of Italy's almost 3,000 troops, but Berlusconi and his government have refused to back down."

Bush said in his press conference: "One of the things that's very important as far as I'm concerned, is to never allow our youngsters to die in vain. And I've made the pledge to their parents. Withdrawing from the battlefield of Iraq would be just that. And it's not going to happen under my watch." How many soldiers will Bush send to the slaughter so that each new death will not be "in vain?" With this 'logic', it could be hundreds, thousands...tens of thousands. All for an unnecessary and illegal war sold to the US public with a mountain of lies. No soldier should have to die to validate Bush's lies.

Reports CanWest: "A showdown between U.S. forces and a maverick Shiite cleric looms in the holy city of Najaf that could have monumental consequences for Iraq and across the Middle East.The 2,500 U.S. troops that have been sent to besiege Najaf, one the holiest cities in Iraq, have been told by Lt.-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez 'to capture or kill' Muqtada al-Sadr if the 30-year-old radical cleric does not surrender to face charges that he ordered the murder of a rival Shia cleric. Any military action in Najaf, home to Iraq's four most senior Shiite clerics, and a place where Shia pilgrims arrive every day in the tens of thousands, is likely to trigger incalculable violence."

Boston.com: "Jennifer Stegeman fears that the good luck that has shadowed her husband's Army Reserve unit during the 12 months spent in Iraq could fade. Geraldine 'Gerri' Whittredge is upset that her son may spend more time in hostile territory than regular Army soldiers did during the Vietnam War ' Marines, who had the longest tours, spent 13 months in Vietnam. The 94th Military Police Company, a reserve unit out of Londonderry, N.H., and Saco, Maine was activated in December 2002. They entered Iraq in April 2003 and were supposed to be home last weekend, but the Army ordered the men and women in the 94th to stay in the Mideast. Said an anquished family member: 'We were so close to getting them home. You just don't want to think that they might have to go back in,' said the anguished wife of a sergeant with the unit."

International Herald Tribune: "As a tenuous cease-fire held in the restive Sunni city of Falluja, a radical Shiite cleric pulled his militiamen out of police stations in three southern cities on Monday in an attempt to ease a standoff with the United States. With quiet on both fronts, the scale of Iraq's worst fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein became clearer: The military reported about 70 coalition troops and 700 Iraqi insurgents killed so far this month. It was the biggest loss of life on both sides since the end of major combat a year ago. .A hospital official said over 600 Iraqis were killed in Falluja alone -- mostly women, children and the elderly."

CNN: "U.S. military figures showed April to be the deadliest month of the war for hostile action, with 73 troops killed. Although 81 died in November 2003, 12 of those deaths occurred as a result of nonhostile incidents. Twenty-six of the 73 troops killed this month died between Friday and Sunday, the military said. Thirteen of the 26 dead American soldiers were killed Friday, the coalition said. Four servicemen died Saturday and another nine died Sunday, the U.S. military said.Those deaths include three Marines who were killed in fighting west of Baghdad on Sunday and two U.S. Army pilots whose Apache helicopter was shot down Sunday in the same region, according to the Coalition Public Information Center. The new figures bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq to 674 -- 479 hostile and 195 nonhostile, according to the U.S. military." Evacuations for all health-related reasons is set at over 18,000 since the war's start.

Bush apparently will do anything - ANYTHING - to keep Ahmed Chalabi happy, including showering him with billions to dispose of as he sees fit and, probably, the title of Prime Minister. Why? Says the Moonie Insight Mag: "Chalabi holds the ultimate weapons -- several dozen tons of documents and individual files seized by his Iraqi National Congress (INC) from Saddam Hussein's secret security apparatus." We suspect the contents of those files - which no doubt contain volumes of inside info on Bush I, Rummy, Cheney, and others, is why Chalabi is being paid off - paid off in TAXPAYER dollars and American and Iraqi lives. Insight notes: "Chalabi is still on the Defense Intelligence Agency's budget for a secret stipend of $340,000 a month. The $40 million the INC has received since 1994 from the U.S. government also covered the expenses of the Iraqi military defectors' stories about weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi regime's links with al-Qaeda." Sweet deal, eh?

Guardian: "Lieutenant Colonel Saad Jasim is reluctant to talk in the open courtyard. He orders his men to bolt the metal door to his small office before he will agree to speak.... Between them and Falluja's main high street is a vast concrete blast wall, guarded by a handful of extremely anxious defence corps soldiers. It was on the other side of this wall and just a few minutes' drive up the road that insurgents gunned down four American security contractors... Where there are now two blackened circles on the carriageway, a jeering mob quickly formed, dragged the burnt bodies from the cars and hacked them apart, pulling some through the streets...None of the town's 900 defence corps troops went to intervene, nor did the Iraqi police, whose headquarters is even closer, nor did the thousands of better-armed, better-trained troops from America's 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based on the outskirts of town."

"In the first year of war in Iraq, the military has made 18,004 medical evacuations during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Pentagon's top health official told Congress Tuesday.The new data, through March 13, is nearly two-thirds higher than the 11,200 evacuations through Feb. 5 cited just last month to Congress by the same official, William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs... Winkenwerder appeared Tuesday before a House Government Reform panel with four Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers. Those soldiers offered a litany of complaints about poor health care for reserve and guard troops -- problems they said have been widespread during the war on terror, particularly on return to the United States."

Independent: "A bomb exploded under a US military vehicle west of Baghdad today, killing five soldiers, the military said. At least four people, including one American and possibly other foreign nationals, were killed in a separate attack and their bodies were burned and mutilated. The explosive device that killed the Americans blew up when their vehicle ran over it, US Army Colonel Jill Morgenthaler said in Baghdad. The attack occurred in Anbar province, which encompasses Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns where anti-US insurgents are active. In an unrelated attack today, gunmen in Fallujah attacked two civilian cars that residents said were carrying foreign nationals. The occupants of the cars were killed and their vehicles were set on fire. Witnesses saw at least four bodies."

The toll of the dead continues

To the Bush administration's more ardent partisans, the death toll in Iraq is merely something to "be aware of," as one recently put it in a communique' from Baghdad -- an acceptable trade of human lives for regime change... Listen to Rosemarie Dietz Slavenas, who on February 2 wrote the president a letter about one of the casualties, Brian Slavenas, her son and an Illinois national guardsman. Brian was killed in action on November 2. Her son "did not give his life," she wrote. "It was cruelly taken from him by your rush to war -- against the United Nations, old allies like France and Germany, western religions' 'Just War Doctrine,' the entire Arab world, and most civilized nations. You inherited peace and prosperity and created murder, mayhem, and massive debt."

The number of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since Bush's war of LIES began last March reached 502 on Saturday after a roadside bomb detonated north of Baghdad, killing three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi civil defense troopers. No WMD's have been found, and no ties to Al Qaeda. Bush has attended dozens of fundraisers and raised millions for his re-election campaign, but he has not attended a single funeral of a soldier he sent to die for LIES. Impeach Bush Now!

David Hackworth writes, "Somewhere between 14,000 and 22,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have been medically evacuated from Iraq to the USA... Was the price our warriors paid in blood worth the outcome? Are we any safer than before our pre-emptive invasion? Even though Saddam is in the slammer and the fourth-largest army in the world is junkyard scrap, Christmas 2003 was resolutely Orange, and 2004 looks like more of the same. Or worse. Our first New Year's resolution should be to find out if the stated reasons for our pre-emptive strike -- Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's connection with al-Qaeda -- constituted a real threat to our national security. Because, contrary to public opinion, the present administration hasn't yet made the case that Saddam and his sadists aided and abetted al-Qaeda's attacks on 9/11. We also need to know why our $30 billion-a-year intelligence agencies didn't read the tea leaves correctly."

Sen. Robert Byrd orated, "In the end, [Bush] wrung virtually every important concession he sought from the House-Senate conference committee. Key provisions that the Senate had debated extensively, voted on, and included in its version of the bill - such as providing half of the Iraq reconstruction funding in the form of loans instead of grants - were thrown overboard in the conference agreement. Senators who had made compelling arguments on the Senate floor only days earlier to limit American taxpayers' liability by providing some of the Iraq reconstruction aid in the form of loans suddenly reversed their position in conference and bowed to the power of the presidency... Perhaps this take-no-prisoners approach is how [Bush] and his advisers define victory, but I fear they are fixated on the muscle of the politics instead of the wisdom of the policy. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to policy, the Iraq supplemental is a monument to failure."

Following complaints of "squalor" at Fort Stewart (GA), Garrison Commander "Col. John Kidd said the reservists' and guard members' complaints that they play second fiddle to full-time soldiers are caused not by a double standard, but by a severe shortage of physicians and other medical personnel... 'We are saturated,' Kidd said. 'We are overflowing, in hospitals and billets. And this is understandable because we are in a war.'... Kidd said 740 reservists and guard members are in a virtual state of limbo... Reservists and guard personnel were so upset at what they described as second-class treatment that they risked disciplinary measures for criticizing their commanders. When 400 or so of the men and women stood in formation Tuesday morning, they were harshly criticized by their commanders, said several, including Sgt. Dennis Stewart, 41, a firefighter from Terre Haute, Ind. 'They said we'd be doing more cleaning up, more work, and to keep our mouths shut,' he said."

Boston Globe: "Ratcheting up his criticism of the war in Iraq, Senator Edward M. Kennedy accuses the Bush administration of telling 'lie after lie after lie' to defend its policy in a fiery speech prepared for delivery today on the Senate floor. 'The trumped up reasons for going to war have collapsed,' Kennedy says in a speech that underscores his opposition to Resident Bush's request for $87 billion to fund military operations and rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan... 'The administration still refuses to face the truth or tell the truth,' Kennedy says, accusing the White House of misleading the public about every aspect of the war, from the financial costs to the motivation and the aftermath. 'Instead the White House responds by covering up its failures and trying to sell its rosy version of events by repeating it with maximum frequency and volume, and minimum regard for realities on the ground.'" You go, Ted! And tell Poppy Bush to take the award he wants to give you and...

From Crunchweb: "'A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon it starts to add up to some real money.' On September 7th, 2003, Resident Bush announced on national television that he was asking the Congress to grant him an additional $87 billion dollars for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1, to continue the fight on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. But $87 billion is an impossibly high number for anyone to visualize. Let's have a look..." Ever wonder what $87 billion looks like when stacked up next to a VW Bug? If so, check out the link below.

Thanks to Karl Rove, the human cost of Bush's War is now defined only by combat deaths. It was only through public outcry that even the accident/illness deaths were reported. The number of injured is swept totally out of Bushspeak. But this war is dirtier and riskier to soldiers by far than Gulf War I: Instead of 100 days of duty in abysmal conditions, these men may spend DOUBLE TOURS under the same conditions. Instead of an offensive war where the troops pushed in, then out, the troops are caught in a constant crossfire and targeted by terrorists - all while under unbelievable physical and mental stress. Yet the entire V.A. budget for veteran healthcare this year is just $59 billion- $28 billion LESS than what Bush wants to prolong the misery.

Nancy Lessin of Military Families Speak Out: "Yes, war is hell; but this is something else, and our loved ones and all our troops have been betrayed. We were all betrayed by this administration when it cited a litany of reasons for invading Iraq that shifted like desert sands and seemed to be based upon quicksand. We were betrayed by an administration that went against the international community and called millions of protesters a 'focus group.' We were betrayed by a lack of planning -- active military and their families are now dealing with back-to-back two year deployments, announced a few weeks ago... We're betrayed by a President who on May 1st landed on a photogenic aircraft carrier decked out with a massive sign reading 'Mission Accomplished' -- and more of our troops have died since then than during so-called 'major combat.' We're betrayed by an administration that allows our loved ones to be occupiers, securing safety for Halliburton and Bechtel to reap billions."

According to this BBC analysis, rebuilding Iraq will cost $90 billion- and we're talking basics (getting the lights and phone restored, getting the oil industry up and running, basic healthcare and educational, etc.) Bush wants $87 billion from taxpayers, but a whopping $66 billion will go entirely to military operations (with some no doubt going to organize an invasion of Syria or Iran). Only $21 billion will go toward actual reconstruction. Wouldn't it have been cheaper just not to have bombed everything - including the utilities and communications systems, not to mention hospitals - to rubble? Look at the way we here in the U.S. rail at the power company after a major storm when we have to wait a week for the juice to come back! Is it any wonder Iraqis are enraged at us? We trashed their infrastructure (after Bush promises not to). Their rage is now costing the lives of at least a soldier a day.

From the National Priorities Project: "This website offers state-by-state breakdowns of how Resident Bush's requested $87 billion in additional war spending could be spent instead to create more jobs and meet community needs at the same time. The fact sheet also provides a graphic illustration of current federal spending priorities, comparing the total amount of war-related spending with spending on basic needs such as food and nutrition, the environment, housing, education, the environment and veterans' benefits."

Mother Jones offers "a sampling of some of the administration's hemming and hawing on the costs of war, occupation and reconstruction: Last September, White House economic advisor Lawrence Lindsey let slip that a war in Iraq might cost anywhere between $100 billion and $200 billion. The White House rushed to downplay his comments. Two days later, the White House budget boss, Mitch Daniels, dismissed Lindsey's prediction as 'very, very high', and three months after that, Lindsey was out of a job. It was the last time, until Sept 7, that any White House official offered a hard estimate of the war's ultimate cost... At a press conference in October 2002, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer claimed that the president had 'made no decisions' whether to go to war and therefore had no idea how much a war might cost. But, he quipped, the price of removing Saddam Hussein could be as low as '[t]he cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves.'" Impeach Bush Now!

"Democratic presidential contender Sen. John Kerry on Sunday urged a freeze on tax cuts for wealthy Americans as Democrats seized on the rising costs of Iraq reconstruction as a political theme. Kerry, in an interview on CBS television's 'Face the Nation' said Resident Bush -- who is seeking an additional $87 billion to pay for rebuilding Iraq -- had mishandled the war and its aftermath. Kerry backed a Senate Democratic proposal to halt tax breaks for wealthy Americans to defray the costs of rebuilding Iraq. The legislation, which Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said on CNN's 'Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer' he would introduce on Monday would delay tax cuts for Americans who earn more than $330,000 a year. 'If we're going to have to ante up money additionally in order to safeguard our troops and get this job done ... there should be a shared sacrifice in America,' said Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts." We agree! Sign our petition at www.democrats.com/taxtherich

"The world is out of kilter when Resident Bush asks for $87 billion for Iraq and only $200 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The administration displays profound confusion regarding national security as well as moral purpose. It is ready to pump tens of billions of dollars into a middle-income oil-rich country of 24 million people, while utterly neglecting 500 million impoverished Africans, 10 million of whom will actually die this year of extreme poverty, too poor to buys the drugs, bed nets, fertilizers, tube wells, and other basic contrivances that could keep them alive.... This year Bush asked for only $200 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, a sum equal to 1.5 days of spending on the US occupying forces in Iraq. The US annual contributions to fight malaria are less than the costs of one day's occupation, and as a result, 3 million Africans will die needlessly from that preventable and treatable disease."

Watch Jon Stewart's biting analysis of Bush's postwar funding request. Apparently Bush misread the price tag for 'prevailing' in Iraq. Turns out it's 4,360,902,255 easy payments of $19.95!

"The White House acknowledged Monday that it substantially underestimated the cost of rebuilding Iraq, and that even the additional $87 billion it is seeking from a wary Congress will fall far short of what is needed for postwar reconstruction. Administration officials said Resident Bush's emergency spending request - which would push the U.S. deficit above the half-trillion-dollar mark for the first time - still leaves a reconstruction funding gap of as much as $55 billion dollars.... [S]ome independent reconstruction specialists questioned whether other nations would be willing to dig deep to cover the rising costs of reconstruction.... 'From what we have been hearing about the donors conference, they'll be lucky if they get $1 billion,' said [one scholar]. The White House divulged few details of how the requested $87 billion appropriation would be spent. Of the $51 billion sought for ongoing military operations, it provided a breakdown for just $1.2 billion."

"Resident Bush is about to ask Congress for an additional $87 billion to continue operations in Iraq. That's about three times the homeland security budget. It would pay for all veterans' programs and benefits for every living American veteran for 15 months. It represents every federal dollar for transportation for all of this year and the first quarter of next year. He's asking for more than five times what we spend on public assistance for the entire United States.... Congress must not give the Resident a blank check after the many, many missteps that have been made in Iraq. If this level of mismanagement were found in any other federal program, my colleagues would be demanding it be shut down or turned over to the states.... I believe Congress must deny any funding request for Iraq until an agreement with the United Nations has been concluded. The errors of Resident Bush and those around him must be corrected, not funded."

USA Today reports: "The monthly bill for the U.S. military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan now rivals Pentagon spending during the Vietnam War, Defense Department figures show. The Pentagon is spending nearly $5 billion per month in Iraq and Afghanistan, a pace that would bring yearly costs to almost $60 billion. Those expenses do not include money being spent on rebuilding Iraq's electric grid, water supply and other infrastructure, costs which had no parallel in Vietnam. In Vietnam, the last sustained war the nation fought, the United States spent $111 billion during the eight years of the war, from 1964 to 1972. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than $494 billion, an average of $61.8 billion per year, or $5.15 billion per month. Resident Bush announced Sunday that he will ask Congress for $87 billion for U.S. operations next year in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere $66 billion for military and intelligence efforts, $21 billion for reconstruction."

"The costs of the Iraq war are escalating for the United States. They are enlarging an already serious federal-budget deficit.... Moreover, because restoration of Iraqi oil production has been slowed by sabotage and other problems, US consumers and business are paying probably an extra $100 million a day for gasoline and other petroleum products. Members of Congress have asked the Bush administration for a detailed breakout of those costs. They also would like to get a guess on the bill for reconstruction of Iraq. But these numbers have not been forthcoming. The White House's Office of Management and Budget recently estimated the fiscal 2004 deficit at $475 billion. But that included no money for Iraq. Any 2004 Iraq costs will add 'dollar for dollar' to the deficit, notes Richard Kogan, an economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.... Most experts expect the occupation costs to continue indefinitely."

Mark Neusche, father of US soldier Josh Neusche who died recently in Iraq from "mystery pneumonia" says that while visiting his comatose son at Landstuhl Hospital, he overheard the nurses say they were expecting many sick troops to be brought in "all at one time. In fact, the father actually witnessed approximately 55 other troops being received by the hospital after they were transported by a military ambulance (bus)," according to a report at the American Gulf War Veterans site... "[T]he transported troops were exhibiting varying degrees of the illness. Some walked, some were in wheelchairs and others were on respirators. In the commotion, a doctor reported to the father that his son was suffering from a 'toxin.' No mention of pneumonia was ever made to him, nor was it ever reported in the medical record."

"The father of a soldier who died of pneumonia this spring said Thursday the Army has excluded her death from its investigation of deadly pneumonia because it wants to cover up vaccine side effects. 'The government is covering this up and it is a dog-gone shame,' said Moses Lacy, whose daughter, Army Spc. Rachael Lacy, died April 4 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after getting pneumonia. Lacy said his daughter 'was a healthy young woman' but got ill within days of getting anthrax and smallpox vaccinations on March 2 in preparation for deployment to the Persian Gulf. She was too ill to ever be deployed. The Army said 100 soldiers have gotten pneumonia in Iraq and southwestern Asia, two of those have died and another 13 have had to be put on respirators. 'The common denominator is smallpox and anthrax vaccinations,' Moses Lacy said... The Army did not mention vaccines on Tuesday when it held a press conference on the pneumonia investigation."

Islam Online reports, "Several mysterious diseases were reported among a number of American troops within the vicinity of Baghdad airport, a military source closely close to NATO unveiled. U.S. soldiers deployed around Baghdad airport started showing symptoms of mysterious fever, itching, scars and dark brown spots on the skin, the source, who refused to be named, said in statements published Thursday, July 17, by the Saudi Al-Watan newspaper. He asserted that three soldiers who suffered these symptoms did not respond to medical treatment in Iraqi hospitals and were flown to Washington for medication. The military source reported a media blackout by U.S. officials to hide such information from the public... NATO experts tend to believe [the symptoms] result from direct exposure to powerful nuclear radiations of the sophisticated B-2 bombs used in the war on Iraq, particularly in striking Iraqi Republican Guards forces who deployed to defend the vicinity of Baghdad airport."

"The Senate refused Wednesday to force the Bush administration to specify precisely the cost of continuing military operations in Iraq, defeating a Democratic attempt to use a defense spending bill to criticize its conduct of the war. The vote was 53-41 to kill a proposal by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to force the administration to submit an amendment to the pending $368.6 billion overall defense spending bill stating the costs... Republicans mustered a strong majority to turn back the Senate's most vocal critic of the war on Tuesday... The 64-31 vote killed a proposal by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to limit National Guard and Reserve overseas missions to six months, once a year. The Defense Department reported last week that 204,100 Guard and Reserve forces were now mobilized to active duty." One bit of good news: "The bill also blocks funds for the Terrorism Information Awareness program, a Bush surveillance initiative to cull [citizens'] records for evidence of terrorist activity."

William Rivers Pitt writes, "His name was Brandon Sloan, and he was from Cleveland, Ohio. Sloan was an American soldier who was killed March 23 after his convoy came under attack in Iraq. He was 19 years old. He was not the first to die, and he was not the last. When a man or woman puts on the uniform of the United States military and swears the oath of service, they are taking a leap of faith that their lives will not be used and disposed of by those who would lie and deceive them into combat. George W. Bush and his administration owe an explanation to the family of Brandon Sloan, and to the families of all the other troops who have fallen and will fall in this war. They owe an explanation to the American people and to the world for the carnage they caused with their lies and exaggerations. There must be a reckoning."

The Pentagon Post's "Faces of the Fallen" page shows the nearly 200 U.S. soldiers who died because Bush lied. What more evidence do we need to Impeach Bush Now?

Derrick Z. Jackson writes, "In late March, after an American missile hit a marketplace in Baghdad and killed plenty of people - Iraqi officials said 58 - Major Gen. Victor Renuart said: 'With every one of those circumstances, we ask the component ... who may have had forces involved, whether it's land, sea, or air, to do an investigation, and that takes a number of days to do that'... [Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks repeated this lie several times.] Two and a half months after the prattle, we now have the terrible truth. There never was an investigation. That fact was embedded (pun intended) in an Associated Press report this week that it has so far counted 3,240 Iraqi civilians killed in the invasion, including nearly 1,900 in Baghdad. The AP quoted Central Command spokesman John Morgan confirming the nonexistence of an investigation. Americans should be shocked that journalists are piecing together a history of the war that our military is trying to bury with the bodies."

Guardian reports, "At least 5,000 civilians may have been killed during the invasion of Iraq, an independent research group has claimed. As more evidence is collated, it says, the figure could reach 10,000. Iraq Body Count (IBC), a volunteer group of British and US academics and researchers, compiled statistics on civilian casualties from media reports and estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 civilians died in the conflict. Its latest report compares those figures with 14 other counts, most of them taken in Iraq, which, it says, bear out its findings. Researchers from several groups have visited hospitals and mortuaries in Iraq and interviewed relatives of the dead; some are conducting surveys in the main cities... Lt. Colonel James Cassella... said that under international law the US was not liable to pay compensation for 'injuries or damage occurring during lawful combat operations'." How was the W-ar lawful, since it violated the UN Charter and was sold to Congress through lies?

Robert Steinback writes: "War supporters have asked me a number of times lately whether images of joyous liberated Iraqis have changed my profound reservations about the wisdom of this war. When I say no, I'm greeted with disbelief. How, their raised eyebrows ask, could you not celebrate the freeing of a nation from a butcher like Saddam Hussein? For one, that's a different question. I'm as thrilled to see Hussein deposed as I was to see the Taliban routed in Afghanistan -- a campaign I supported. The core question the hawks are asking is: In Iraq, have the ends justified the means? By way of answer, consider the questions I haven't been asked."

PentaPost reports that Congress has ordered Bush "to 'seek to identify families of non-combatant Iraqis who were killed or injured or whose homes were damaged during recent military operations, and to provide appropriate assistance.' The provision was inserted in the $78.5 billion emergency spending bill by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.)... 'Innocent civilians have suffered grievous losses,' Leahy said. 'As we help rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq, we should do what we can to assist the innocent, to show that we were not at war against them and that the US does not walk away. It is the right thing to do, and it is in our own national interest'... [The Pentagon said it] 'has no plans' to determine the total civilian casualty toll. Before its demise, the Iraqi government reported 1,254 civilian deaths as of April 3. The Bush administration has offered no estimates" - nor has the PentaPost. IraqBodyCount.org counts 1600+

Jackson Thoreau writes: "This is a variation of a question-and-answer piece on the relationship between Iraq, the U.S., Europe, and military campaigns circulating through cyberspace. I set it up as an easier-to-read numerical column and added a few items of my own. The numbers speak for themselves.

Years that Iraq has had chemical and biological weapons: 20.

Number of U.S. and European corporations that supplied Iraq with materials and knowledge to make chemical and biological weapons since the early 1980s: 150.

Number of Western nations that condemned Saddam Hussein in 1988 immediately after he used gas in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 to kill an estimated 5,000 people: 0."

Professor William Nordhaus of Yale University has published a new study on the cost of the Second Gulf War (www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/iraq.html). He rectifies the limitations of the HBC and CBO studies by including a protracted war scenario in addition to the quick win scenario. Additionally, while measuring costs, he includes not only the budgeted cost of the war, but also the unbudgeted - and often ignored - costs of reconstructing the Iraqi nation and the even bigger costs associated with the macroeconomic impacts of the war on the US. Taking all these factors into consideration, Nordhaus brackets the cost of the war to the US at $120-$1,600 billion over the next decade.

"A particular point of concern for the US command is the huge overuse of precision-guided munitions and cruise missiles. 'The rate of their use is incompatible with the obtained results. We are literally dropping gold into the mud!' said Gen. Richard Mayers during a meeting in Pentagon yesterday morning. [reverse translation from Russian] The US experts already call this war a 'crisis'. 'It was enough for the enemy to show a little resistance and some creative thinking as our technological superiority begun to quickly lose all its meaning. Our expenses are not justified by the obtained results. The enemy is using an order of magnitude cheaper weapons to reach the same goals for which we spend billions on technological whims of the defense industry!' said Gen. Stanley McCrystal during the same Pentagon meeting. [reverse translation from Russian]."

Never mind the low-ball $75 billion George W. Bush is demanding to cover expenses for his invasion of Iraq. The real cost of this illegal military action is the lives it destroys. As reported in the Guardian, the web site http://www.iraqbodycount.org is compiling the reports of the civilians who have died because of Bush's warlust.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times is maintaining an excellent page dedicated to the memories of those who have died in Bush's Wars. The page includes names, photos, circumstances of death, and family reactions, along with a page for condolences. Our hearts grieve deeply for the families and friends of these brave Americans.

"As Bush rattles the sabers of war, pundits have been quick to sum up the costs of America's war chest. Yet, new research by Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty members suggests that the experts are missing the mark. They say threat of war has already caused the U.S. stock market to shrivel $1.1 trillion in value, and when the bombs start to rain on Baghdad, America's wealth may shrink even further.The study reveals . that waiting for war has already bled off $1.1 trillion of America's wealth since September, 2002, compared with a no-war alternative. Possible war outcomes include a 70% probability that eventual effect of war on the market will be a further decline of 0 to 15%, a 20% probability of a 15-30% decline, and a small but significant 10% probability of a catastrophic plunge in excess of 30%."