Blogging for Freedom

Thursday June 29, 2006

As of today, 2529 brave, patriotic Americans have died in Iraq.  More than 19,000 have been wounded. These are our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends, neighbors, co-workers.

The war, and the way the post-invasion occupation was managed, has also caused unbelievable suffering to ordinary Iraqi citizens. The violence has spiralled into a full-blown civil war -  regardless of what GW, Dick and Rummy say we've made a mess of Iraq. 

Just think what we would do and how we would feel if this happened every day in our own country:

    Shooting and bombings killed 12 people in Baghdad, including a Shiite trash collector, a university security chief, a baker, two merchants and an electrical worker

    In the northern city of Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber struck the funeral of a Shiite soldier in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing four people and wounding 27, police and hospital officials said.

    Police in Kirkuk also found the body of a 15-year-old girl who had been kidnapped five days ago in the oil-rich city.

    Seven bullet-riddled bodies were found floating in the Tigris River in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, while two men who had been shot to death and showed signs of torture were found in the Euphrates River in Musayyib, 40 miles south of the capital.

By the way, 38,725 to 43,140 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the conflict since the US invasion March 2003. This is a conservative estimate as records are difficult to obtain.  Read more at Iraq Body Count