Iraqi draftees: We should care about their boys, too
Posted in LFA Flashback by R Lee Wrights on November 30th, 2007 by Glenn Sacks
Hundreds of thousands of protesters around the US have demonstrated against the coming war against Iraq, decrying the inevitable civilian casualties and expressing fear for the safety of “our boys” in the armed forces. Proponents of the war have expressed similar concerns, though from a different angle. This is as it should be, but there is one major element missing from the discussion–the young Iraqi soldiers who will die in this war.
The Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that in the last Gulf War 100,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed and another 300,000 were wounded, compared to less than 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed or wounded. The Iraqi government puts its military losses at 75,000 to 100,000 and its civilian losses at 35,000 to 45,000.
The carnage was particularly gruesome on the road from Mutlaa, Kuwait, to Basra, Iraq, dubbed the “Highway of Death,” upon which tens of thousands of young Iraqi soldiers were killed as they tried to leave Kuwait. Some of the charred and dismembered bodies littering the highway were those of child soldiers, whom Iraq used in both the war against Iran and the Gulf War.
By now, you have probably heard the news which was delivered prior to Thanksgiving that the U.S. Supreme Court will be taking up the DC gun ban case.
In Florida last week children were traumatized by protocols that for two days in a row kept them locked down in schools away from their parents. The reason given? A crime had taken place that is normally handled by the police. In these cases the two separate crimes, a robbery and an escaped convict, were used to justify a complete lock down of the area around Ft. Lauderdale.
I am 56 years old. To many of you I could be your Mother. Actually, my own now 28-year-old son first introduced me to My Space (blogging), signed me up and got me started.
There is no family responsibility more important than educating the next generation. You may be wealthy or poor. You may be healthy or sick. No matter your conditions, you can be sure: If your children are not educated well, they will end up poor and sick.
Smoking first. Then cheeseburgers. So goes the logical extension of Michael Carrigan’s thinking. The well-intentioned University of Colorado regent is currently pushing a system-wide ban on all outdoor smoking. He says he was inspired by his desire to protect young people from dying of lung cancer. “I’ve had a number of close relatives die from smoking, including my grandparents and my uncle, who was my namesake,” Carrigan told the Rocky Mountain News. “I would like to see the next generation be free of smoking.”
For the first time in United States history, the Supreme Court will hear a case that should, once and for all, decide the meaning of the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights, and the Second Amendment Foundation could not be happier.
I’ve decided to go public with my intentions: I will not be asking Ann Coulter for a date. There are some good reasons.
Day after day, it chews and grinds. Its only purpose is chewing and grinding. The chewing and grinding gives it no satisfaction, only another day of existence. Another day of chewing and grinding. The War on Some Drugs has endless hunger.
