Kerry on Iraq employment opportunities: "$150 for tossing grenades...

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

...at passing U.S. convoys."

From today's Kerry Campaign e-mail:

Security is deteriorating, for us and for the Iraqis. 42 Americans died in Iraq in June -- the month before the handover. But 54 died in July -- 66 in August and already 54 halfway through September. And more than 1,100 Americans were wounded in August -- more than in any other month since the invasion. We are fighting a growing insurgency in an ever widening war-zone. In March, insurgents attacked our forces 700 times. In August, they attacked 2,700 times -- a 400% increase.

Falluja, Ramadi, Samarra, even parts of Baghdad -- are now "no go zones" -- breeding grounds for terrorists who are free to plot and launch attacks against our soldiers. The radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who is accused of complicity in the murder of Americans, holds more sway in the suburbs of Baghdad. Violence against Iraqis from bombings to kidnappings to intimidation is on the rise.

Basic living conditions are also deteriorating. Residents of Baghdad are suffering electricity blackouts lasting up to 14 hours a day. Raw sewage fills the streets, rising above the hubcaps of our Humvees. Children wade through garbage on their way to school. Unemployment is over 50 percent. Insurgents are able to find plenty of people willing to take $150 for tossing grenades at passing U.S. convoys.

Yes, there has been some progress, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our soldiers and civilians in Iraq. Schools, shops and hospitals have been opened. In parts of Iraq, normalcy actually prevails. But most Iraqis have lost faith in our ability to deliver meaningful improvements to their lives. So they're sitting on the fence instead of siding with us against the insurgents.



"Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass, hugs Dr. Gloria Wilderbrathwaite after she received a Redbook Mothers and Shakers Award at their seventh annual luncheon in New York Monday, Sept. 20, 2004. Wilderbrathwaite founded and runs the Children's Health Project, a non-profit on wheels which brings medical care to children in poor neighborhoods of Washington D.C. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)"

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. No wonder the Senators were on Bush's case last week.

If there are 135,000 troops in Iraq then the chances you were attacked last month were 1 in 50.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

3. Heard from my friend in the Green Zone

Mortar and rocket attacks are round-the-clock. Most aren't even reported. She's a civilian and she sent a pic of a ten inch piece of shrapnel that almost killed her, landing inches away.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. Wow. Didn't know shrapnel came so big.

I always thought is was iddy biddy stuff.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

5. Most of it is small

But any metal fragment released by an explosion is technically shrapnel.

[A_Possum]

2. This is Kerry's common sense

compared to Bush's delusions.

Instead of HALLIBURTON'S incompetence and highway-robbery prices, Kerry will put Iraqis back to work rebuilding their own country, NOT for the profit of Cheney's stock, but for their own future.