Most mainstream media have omitted in reporting the news that over a year ago, public health experts put the number at 100,000.

The original Lancet study is online—registration is required to access. The radio show This American Life also did a segment earlier in the year on the credibility of the Lancet study, and found it to be credible. Link to broadcast is here.

The Lancet study was widely critiqued by the right for its methods, which were made public and employed very common statistical sampling techniques, some deriving from a Pentagon statistictian. So should the method behind Bush’s number be made public.

I trust a group of (hopefully) non-partisan public health experts far more than Bush and Rummy.

It turns my stomach that our president can actually justify this war to himself and others despite this massive and unnecessary loss of life. Will no one point out to him the immorality of “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here” when it causes the death of innocent women and children? He claims that we are bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East. What good is freedom when you must worry every day about your children dying, no to mention when your electricity will work and where your next job will come from?

DEMOCRATS:
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army
journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V,
Purple Hearts.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953

REPUBLICANS — and these are the guys SENDING PEOPLE TO WAR:
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.

Complete list on the flip…

The complete list:

DEMOCRATS:

* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.

* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.

* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.

* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army
journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.

* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.

* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.

* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V,
Purple Hearts.

* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.

* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star,
Vietnam. Paraplegic from war injuries. Served in Congress.

* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.

* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.

* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.

* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign
ribbons.

* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze
Stars, and Soldier’s Medal.

* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and
Legion of Merit.

* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.

* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze
Star with Combat V.

* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.

* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57

* Chuck Robb: Vietnam

* Howell Heflin: Silver Star

* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.

* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but
received #311.

* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.

* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953

* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters.

* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul
Wallenberg.

REPUBLICANS — and these are the guys SENDING PEOPLE TO WAR:

* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.

* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.

* Tom Delay: did not serve.

* Roy Blunt: did not serve.

* Bill Frist: did not serve.

* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.

* Rick Santorum: did not serve.

* Trent Lott: did not serve.

* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.

* Jeb Bush: did not serve.

* Karl Rove: did not serve. (Bush’s Machiavelli)

* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. “Bad knee.” The man who attacked Max
Cleland’s patriotism. (You know what should be done to him!)

* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve. Neocon warhawk

* Vin Weber: did not serve.

* Richard Perle: did not serve. Neocon warhawk

* Douglas Feith: did not serve.

* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.

* Richard Shelby: did not serve.

* Jon Kyl (Senator, Arizona): did not serve.

* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.

* Christopher Cox: did not serve.

* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.

* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.

* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got
assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for
U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.

* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non- combat role
making movies.

* B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.

* Phil Gramm: did not serve.

* John McCain: Vietnam POW, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit,
Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. Remember how the Bush campaign trashed him in the Republican primaries in 2000?

* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.

* John M. McHugh: did not serve.

* JC Watts: did not serve.

* Jack Kemp: did not serve. “Knee problem, ” although continued in NFL
for 8 years as quarterback. (Win one for the Gipper!!)

* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.

* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.

* George Pataki: did not serve.

* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.

* John Engler: did not serve.

* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.

* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base. (Our gift from Austria)

Pundits & Preachers

* Sean Hannity: did not serve.

* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a ‘pilonidal cyst.’)

* Bill O’Reilly: did not serve.

* Michael Savage: did not serve.

* George Will: did not serve.

* Chris Matthews: did not serve.

* Paul Gigot: did not serve.

* Bill Bennett: did not serve.

* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.

* John Wayne: did not serve.

* Bill Kristol: did not serve.

* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.

* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.

* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.

* Ralph Reed: did not serve.

* Michael Medved: did not serve.

* Charlie Daniels: did not serve.

* Ted Nugent: did not serve. (He only shoots at things that don’t shoot back.)

• Bush knew there was no Iraq-9/11 link – The National Journal is reporting that the September 21, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing informed Bush that “the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda.” The article goes on to say that not only did Saddam not ally himself with Al Qaeda but that he distrusted the organization and considered infiltrating it with his own security operatives.
• Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera, the story grows – This one is a bit (but only a bit) harder to believe. A group of international journalists has been claiming for a while that the US Military has purposefully attacked Al Jazeera offices and employees. Now some documents have leaked out in Britain seeming to corroborate these claims. While Downing Street won’t comment, the two people who leaked the documents are being prosecuted under the UK’s Official Secrets Act. [UPDATE:] Juan Cole seems to believe it.
• Willy Pete use classified as “chemical” by pentagon – Finally the White Phosphorous story is starting to get some traction in the mainstream media. This story has been bubbling on the blogs for the past few days and what it comes down to is that it seems that US troops are using WP as a chemical weapon. Now of course the Bushies say that it’s not a crime since WP isn’t considered a chemical weapon in any treaty we’ve signed but Kos rightly points out that our moral standing in the world is not based on legalistic arguments. More at ThinkProgress, AlterNet, and The Wizard. If you didn’t know, WP melts skin right to the bone and was used on civilians during the US invasion of Fallujah.

A war built on lies, the murder of journalists, chemical warfare on civilians, and the utter destruction of the moral highground that our country has always held so dear. This is the legacy of Bush and Cheney. Hopefully at least things are changing here.

Arianna Huffington commented that Plamegate will be bigger than Watergate because of the massive loss of life (now 2,000 Americans, see Josh’s post below). Keep in mind the Iraqi total is over 26,000. Given that the Democrats have been handed this golden opportunity to launch a platform of “Together, America (or we) can do better,” they must now capatalize on the Republican implosion and corruption.

The message of this particular incident, “Plamegate” must be simple, and directly tied to the Iraq war. Joe Wilson was a critic from the INSIDE, not from the lefty blogosphere. He had contributed $1,000 to elect George W. Bush, and in 2003 wrote a piece condemning the adminsitration’s handling of how they sold the war to the American people. What needs to be on trial here is that Bush, Cheney, and Rove lied to the American people about the neccesity of war, and covered it up with this intentional smear of their critic.

If the Democrats fail to grasp this concept, and sieze this opportunity, the indictments mean nothing, and we have let Bush get away with murder, literally.

….comments?

The US military death toll in Rummy and Cheney‘s illegal and immoral war has reached 2,000 brave American men and women.

Tomorrow evening MoveOn.org is organizing candlelit vigils around the nation to support the troops and honor our dead. Here is a list of sites in Philadelphia where a vigil will be held. See you on the west side of City Hall at 5 pm.

The shocking part is how the administration wants to respond…they want the U.N. to deal with it…DIPLOMATICALLY…I never thought I’d see the day..but then again, I guess we don’t really have any more disposible military personell unless the Bush twins sign up. Read this:

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli declined to say what course of action the Bush administration might take. But when asked if military force would be used against Syria, he said, ”We are seeking a diplomatic solution to this problem.”

Not like the Bush crew feel like they ever need to justify anything, but if they were looking for a reason to sell the public on invading Syria, here it is.

With that off my chest, there are ways to still get to the Select content and today’s editorial by Tom Friedman is particularly enlightening. He offers a unique take on the quagmire in Iraq by claiming that it is not the intelligence failure on WMDs that will ultimately be seen as the Bush cabal’s downfall in Iraq, but rather their complete misunderstanding of the socioeconomic status of the country prior to invaasion:

But I think Saddam knew how busted and bankrupt his country and army were. Therefore, he never wanted to completely erase the impression that he had W.M.D. Saddam lived in a den of wolves. The hint of W.M.D. was his only deterrent shield left against his neighbors, his enemies at home and the West. (This was alluded to in the Duelfer W.M.D. report.) So he tried to allow just enough U.N. inspections to clear him on W.M.D., while playing just enough cat and mouse with the U.N. to leave the impression that he still had something dangerous in the closet.

The Bush team, and the C.I.A., not only failed to learn that Saddam had no W.M.D., they failed to appreciate how devastated Iraqi society really was. The Bush team, listening largely to exiles who had not lived in Iraq for years, thought that there were much more of an Iraqi middle class and more institutions than actually existed. So Mr. Bush thought taking over Iraq would be easy. That is the only way I can explain his behavior.

This intelligence failure about Iraqi society is what is killing us today. Because what really happened after the U.S. invasion is that what little Iraqi state existed just fell apart in our hands, like a broken vase. And then Rummy let the shards get looted.

Friedman has a tendency to create his own grand hypotheses and then treat them as fact, but this one rings true with me.

[UPDATE: Here's a link to the full version.]

Decline in Iraqi Troops’ Readiness Cited
Generals Tell Lawmakers They Cannot Predict When U.S. Forces Can Withdraw

The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq, said there are fewer Iraqi battalions at “Level 1″ readiness than there were a few months ago. Although Casey said the number of troops and overall readiness of Iraqi security forces have steadily increased in recent months, and that there has not been a “step backwards,” both Republican and Democratic senators expressed deep concern that the United States is not making enough progress against a resilient insurgency.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his commanders yesterday publicly hedged their forecasts of U.S. involvement in Iraq, leaving it unclear when troops will be able to come home or how long it will take before Iraqi security forces can defend their homeland.

LINK

This war, and in fact this entire administration and Republican party, is a disgrace. Where we need competence there is cronyism. Where we need compassion there is greed. Where we need results there is PR and spin.

Every day it becomes increasingly clear. How can you govern when you have nothing but contempt for government?

Donahue ends by asking Bill to come out this weekend and protest with the rest of us. I’ll be there. Will you?

[BTW - This is SkaroffBlog's 200th post. Yay!]

Sure looks the blue states pay a high price for this illegal and immoral war.

Also from Kos, the latest AP-Ipsos Iraq opinion polls:

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Bush administration has conducted the war in Iraq?

(Results from June 2005 in parentheses)

TOTAL APPROVE — 37 percent (41)

TOTAL DISAPPROVE — 58 percent (56)

…

4. Has the military action in Iraq …

(Results from April 2004 in parentheses)

—Increased the threat of terrorism in the world, 50 percent (47)

—Decreased the threat of terrorism in the world, 20 percent (25 percent)

—Had no effect on the threat of terrorism, 28 percent (25 percent)

—Not sure, 3 percent (3 percent)

…

6. Do you think it is OK for people who oppose the war in Iraq to express their opposition publicly, or not?

—Yes, 87 percent

—No, 12 percent

—Not sure, 1 percent

7. Do you have a friend, colleague or family member who has served in the military effort in Iraq at any time since March 2003?

—Yes, 54 percent

—No, 45 percent

—Not sure, 1 percent