Terrorists AND Extremists

Porter Goss, CIA Director, introduced this combination of words during testimony regarding Threats to U.S. Security before the Senate Armed Services committee on Thursday, March 17, 2005.

By combining the terms, the line is blurred. Later the waters are further muddied with one sentence, completely out of place and context:

“More people are killed each year because of illegal drugs than terrorism.”

The very next sentence he, and his aids, continued the familiar chant using all the important keywords, war on terrorism, Islamic extremists, terrorism, 9/11, terrorists, freedom, democracy, counter-terrorist, weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, mushroom cloud, national security, god and country.

The good news, the “insurgency” is only active in the 4 largest regions, including Baghdad.

So let’s take a look at the score on this 2nd anniversary of the invasion affectionately known among the warmongers as OIF, which is guvspeak for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In IRAQ since 3/19/03

U.S.

Them

Dead

1,500

30 – 250,000

Maimed

25,000

1 Million or so

Our task is made difficult due to a few U.S. government policies regarding casualty and death tolls.

U.S. military casualties are inaccurately reported as follows:

Combat deaths only count if the victim is dead before leaving the battlefield. Those that die in the hospital, or on the streets back home-less, are not included in this daily number reported by the media.

Advanced medical technology, body armor and increased distance between adversaries all combine to create many more that live, but without arms and legs. The economic reality of the long-term medical and societal costs is completely ignored.

Iraqi military casualties and deaths tolls are not reported.

There are no “Official” records of Iraqi civilian casualties and death tolls.

However, entities other than the fascist agents of the U.S. have made attempts to compile this pertinent data, and I suggest this be included on the price sticker of every new car, on every gas pump in the nation and be required reading for every applicant for a drivers license. Maybe something like this: