20,000 more

according to the new york times, the new plan for iraq, authored by bush and his henchmen, calls for a rapid influx of troops, up to 20,000, and a job program that could cost billions for the US.

does the president not know that the war is purely futile and unamanageable? according to the Iraq Coalition Casualties organization, http://icasualties.org/oif/, 3006 US soldiers have been killed as of january 4, 2007. 1388 days have passed since the first US soldier was sent to iraq, which was on March 20, 2003. with some simple math, the average casualties-per-day can be figured out. observe:

3006 casualties/1388 conflict days=approximately 2.17 casualties per day

so now we can figure that at least two brave soldiers of the US military die every day for a lost cause. with two soldiers dying every day, we can now figure out how many will perish until the end of president bush's term, roughly two more years. observe:

two years (730 days) * 2.17 casualties per day= approximately 1584.1 casualties

ultimately, if this war keeps going for two more years, approximately 4590 soldiers will have perished at the hands of terrorists who we are in no way responsible for. that's 4590 families crushed by the absences of their sons and daughters. 4590 funerals attended by mourning friends and family members. 4590 needless deaths for the furthering of one man's staunch tenacity and stubborness.

i know for certain that the job of the president is a tough one and that president bush has been plagued by an unfortunate amount of crap since his first term in office. but with all due respect to him, the war has been his lethal concoction and is an utter failure. the war has been started for flimsy reasons and even the crap reasons change as the endless war rolls on.

senator obama said the following a while back on meet the press:

"The war in Iraq was an ideologically driven war. I think Bush was sincere and is sincere about his desire to maintain a strong America, but there was a single-mindedness to this process that has led our country into a very difficult position. It's a consequence of that single-mindedness that we did not create the kind of international framework that would have allowed success once we decided to go in. I think that this administration is sincere but I think it's misguided."

i fully agree with what he has said on the iraq war. his opinion and delivery clearly convey the character of a man who has respect for the president, yet can still politely object to the president's utter failures and flaws.