Jul 31 2008
It’s Official, July 2008 Most Secure Month In Iraq Since Invasion
Unless something dramatic happens in the next four hours, Iraq will have just passed a huge milestone relative to security. This month there have been 12 US deaths in Iraq, only 8 of which were due to hostile fire. This mark is very much worth celebrating and thanking all those in the US and Allied military forces who made this possible. The Surge worked – Victory is at hand. More here from the shoddy liberal media (who can’t count and can’t distinguish between accidental deaths and those from hostile fire).
The goalpost has now been moved – the complaint dujour is of course no longer “it can never work! All is lost!!” but instead
“It cost too much! It wasn’t worth it!”
Were they out in April, 1945, claiming “it wasn’t worth it! It was
all a mistake!” No, I suppose today that’s left to the likes of Pat Buchanon. Was the Civil War “not worth it”? Sure, that slavery thing would have worked out without it. Why not the American Revolution? Was that really worth it? Look at all the trouble that could have been avoided!
“Worth it??” The question is intentionally put that way because there’s no way to objectively answer a values question – in the mind’s of the people putting this way, anything that makes them “feel good” is worth it, anything that makes them “feel bad” is not. They have the ethical system of toddlers.
For me, I say that a functioning, stable, Islamic democracy in the heart of the middle east – that impossible chimera, that wild eyed utopian dream – if that is achieved, then it will have been worth many times over what was paid, both in gold and in blood.
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.” – John Stuart Mill
“Second, three of the July deaths from hostile action occurred as a result of events that occurred before July 2008. The Department of Defense reported yesterday that Marine Staff Sgt. Faoa L. Apineru, 31, of Yorba Linda, Calif. (RIP, soldier) , died July 2, 2007, from wounds sustained in combat support. It was originally thought that he had not died from injuries sustained during his deployment, but a subsequent investigation determined otherwise. Additionally, two soldiers who had been missing since May 2007 after being kidnapped, Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, of Waterford, Michigan, (RIP, gentlemen), were found during July.
This means that there were actually just five US troop deaths relating to hostile enemy action during July, and that the total US troop death toll in July relating to current operations was really nine. July 2008 was without a doubt the safest month to be a soldier serving the USA in Iraq since hostilities began. Beyond that, the last US soldier’s death from any cause occurred at least two weeks ago.”
Excerpt from a Bizzyblog post analyzing the death toll.
http://www.bizzyblog.com/2008/07/31/as-month-end-nears-points-you-wont-see-made-about-iraq/