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Americans Dying at Alarming Rate in Ira

According to this BBC News article, twenty one American soldiers have died in Iraq since Sunday, with the most recent fatalities being four soldiers who died after being attacked in northwest Baghdad. That’s an alarming increase in the rate at which American soldiers are being killed.

How is this situation allowed to continue? Why are we not sending more troops over to quell the violence? Or why are we not redeploying the troops we already have over there so the Iraqis can take control of the situation? Is sending four or five Americans per day to their death really in the best interest of anyone rooting for a successful and stable Iraq?

A recently declassified National Intelligence Estimate presented a consensus conclusion from the nation’s intelligence community regarding our involvement in Iraq, declaring that the war has indeed made Americans less safe than we otherwise would have been. Where’s the leadership here? Where are the people saying, “You know, we have a huge problem over there, and this is how we plan to fix it…”? Our elected leaders seem to be merely crossing their fingers and hoping more of the same, more of what has killed thousands of Americans in the last three and a half years and has maimed tens of thousands more, will somehow just start working in the future? How many more young men and women my age have to lose limbs or lives before we realize that whatever course we happen to be following regarding Iraq simply isn’t working the way we would like?

Last week, President Bush privately met with some Republican senators. According to Senator Trent Lott, the war in Iraq was not discussed:

“No, none of that,” Lott told reporters after the session when asked if the Iraq war was discussed. “You’re the only ones who obsess on that. We don’t and the real people out in the real world don’t for the most part.”

The real people out in the real world don’t “obsess” on losing thousands of American lives over the past three and a half years in a war that is making America less safe? What real people have you been meeting, Senator Lott? Young people my age are suffering some of the worst physical and emotional trauma imaginable, if not outright losing their lives, and Senator Lott is complaining that the media is “obsess[ing]” over our war in Iraq. This is what’s happening, Senator Lott:

A Francestown soldier serving in Iraq was seriously wounded over the weekend in a roadside bombing.

First Lt. Scott Quilty, 26, had to have his right leg amputated below the knee and his right arm amputated below the elbow, his father told The Sentinel.