NYT frontpage: Deaths in Iraq Take Steady Toll at Home

[DeepModem Mom]

After today, there will be at least 15 more funerals -- but, at long last, look at today's NYT frontpage image, with photo, above the fold, of a soldier's burial at West Point:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/pageone/scan/index.html

And the accompanying personal stories, behind the fatality numbers:

"Deaths in Iraq Take a Steady Toll at Home"

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/national/02CASU.html

In the last two weeks, 22 American soldiers have given their lives to the occupation of Iraq, a platoon of 21 men and 1 woman cut down to a stack of photographs by accidents, illness and the rising insurgency.

There is Lt. David Bernstein, a soldier's soldier who was killed two weeks ago and buried on Friday at the United States Military Academy here. As his mother sat with a folded flag in her lap and his father accepted a Bronze Star, even the Green Berets cried.

And there is Sgt. Aubrey Bell, the 280-pound Alabama National Guardsman, who drove a forklift and ate mayonnaise sandwiches, and who was shot to death in front of a police station.

And Pvt. Rachel Bosveld, the 19-year-old military policewoman who loved to draw forest scenes and was silenced by mortars.

And Sgt. Paul J. Johnson, a paratrooper who could imagine no fate better than leaping into the night sky, who died after being burned by a bomb.

And Pvt. Jamie L. Huggins, Pvt. Jason Ward, Pfc. John Hart, Lt. Col. Charles H. Buehring and 14 others.

[BeHereNow]

1. Sorry, but here at DU

We are too busy arguing about confederate flags
and REALLY important things.
Disgusted with EVERYTHING at the moment.
BHN

[BeHereNow]

2. Thanks for the post though

and sorry for the sarcasm...
I can't believe the way people are
jumping for the emotional carrots and
missing the fact that the behavior is
no different that the freaking right wingers-
mean while, the issues that destroy us equally,
the issues that REALLY matter, the issues that
are the REAL agenda of the corporate fascists,
who don't give a damn whether we are republicans
or democrats, continue to kill ALL of our children.
WAKE UP AMERICA-
YOU ARE BEING MANIPULATED.
BHN

[DeepModem Mom]

3. I agree, BHN -- it's a bad day, here at DU, and elsewhere... n/t

[BeHereNow]

4. In other words...

These young Americans are the sons and daughters
of both Republicans and Democrats.
This is no longer a two party problem and it is the MOST
important problem that we, as a nation of people
face.
BRING THEM HOME.
You want to support our troops?
Set aside you frothing arguments and
unite to stop the war.
BHN

There are neocons in BOTH parties, some of them
posing as members of one party or another-
AND there are anti-neocons in both parties-
WE MUST UNITE.
They succeed because we buy the ruse and miss
the reality. The result, DEAD AMERICAN KIDS,
and does a party affiliation really matter at that point?
Or a friggin confederate flag?

[fishnfla]

7. With all due respect

624,511 Americans died during the civil war. It was the most divisive time our country ever experienced. Maybe still to this day.

I feel for the dead troopers then, now, today, and those in the article above, all of them.

I cant get too worked up if DUers debate the stars and bars. More power to 'em, I say.

[Skittles]

11. I'm getting tired of it too, BHN

and my heart is so broken over these young soldiers losing their lives

[izzie]

12. Can you believe how many Dem go along with the neo-cons?

They are just as scary to me. Where are the ones with a back bone. I am sick of them also.

[BeHereNow]

13. Rabid Right AND Left

What is truly frightening is the similarity in THINKING.
Neither seem to have the ability to discern the FACTS
that matter, versus the EMOTIONAL nationalistic frothing
over what DOES NOT MATTER.
Corporatists could give a DAMN about anything
but amassing MORE POWER.
Corporatists do NOT have affiliation to any party
and therefore use a revolving door between the two
to accomplishtheir goals. When they are not in political
costumes, they are serving on corporate boards doing the
real work. WE have become so shallow in our thinking as to
not examine what these people are up to when they are
not pretending to be Dems or Repubs.
I highly recommend a book called-
"The Middle Mind: Why Americans Can't Think for Themselves"
by Curtis White.
WE, and I mean both parties have the attention span of
fleas. The corporates know this and have utilized it fully
to their advantage. In the meantime, we have lost the country.
We spend our time squabbling about things they could
care a twit about, and that is fine with them; they encourage
the behavior as a matter of fact. They even supply the
junk food for junk thought. And, we gobble it up
like the pigs led to slaughter.
As I observe, I can only think, it is truly too late.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Yahoo link to same stary - - requires no registration

. . .From the article:

"Andrea Brassfield's husband painted a different picture.

"He told me: `They don't want us here. They throw rocks at us. They shoot at us. I don't know what we're doing here,' " she said. "

/snip/

"Why is it O.K. if he dies?" his cousin Vecie Williams asked. "The president don't care. You see him on TV. He says this, he says that. But show me one tear, one tear."

/snip/




Lots more at link, very disturbng , and long -

[IndianaGreen]

8. This war was a mistake that it is compounded by the ongoing occupation

We must demand that our political leaders, and elected representatives, bring our troops home at once. Every day they delay, is another day of death and wounded on our national consciousness. Do not repeat the mistakes of Vietnam and keep the troops in Iraq in search for an elusive "victory" which will never come, or a "peace with honor" that has neither peace nor honor.

Support the troops by bringing them home, alive, and at once!

[fishnfla]

9. I agree. I have gone one step further

Anyone who voted for or supports this admin. has to accept responsibilty for these deaths. I'm puting a human face on this.

[0007]

6. Those link were a sobering experience to read.

It appears that many families aren't too happy with the army's information about deaths of love ones.

[northernsoul]

10. absolutely gut-wrenching

this article should be required reading for all Americans