Another sad milestone reached today.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...raq_death_toll

Excerpts:

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - American soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) have been dying at a rate of two a day since Iraqis regained political control on June 28 — a drop from the deadliest months of violence before the handover but still about the same rate overall as in the 16 months since the U.S. invasion.

The U.S. military death toll now has reached 900, and the number of American soldiers injured is approaching 6,000.

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<<Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.>>

I don't really agree that they have regained control and I think many Iraqis think the same and so they continue to resist the occupation. That "government" where handpicked by the invaders, a typical move of a occupation force. People in similar positions where typically rounded up and shot after WWII like this guy: http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/q/quisling.asp

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Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster.
Friedrich Nietzsche

really cold post eminent

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I have something to hide.

America has brought freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people. The present government is an interim government - a necessary step for the transition to democracy. When the Iraqi people are ready, and when the terrorists have been anhialated, Iraq will enjoy free and fair elections and will become the second true democracy in the middle east.

Those few terrorists are the only ones who are preventing peace and stability from flourishing. They WILL be destroyed sooner or later, but this will not happen without the support and guidance of the US in Iraq. That is why it is essential that the US remains and stays the course until the job is done.

Try telling that to the family of those blown up in iraq, which continues on a daily basis


surely $200bn could've brought a better freedom & democracy to the people of Iraq!!!

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I have something to hide.

The problem is that even if you destroy the resistance, nothing will be gained since it will just create more of them. Second, my point is that there are people there that don't see those people as "their" government and so they try to kill them. I just analyze the situation here, not voicing my own opinions even if I could do that if I wanted. I predict that "insurgents" will continue to operate for years or even decades to come. They will not stop fighting as long as they feel that they have a reason to. The military can only deal with individual fighters, not the problem in itself. There will always be more people that are willing to join the fight. Their methods will probably change over time thou, just look at how IRA has gone from resistance fighters that managed to liberate most of their country from the British to become just another terrorist organization. They seem to have finally cooled of for now but there are still hardliners. And as in Northern Ireland, supporters of the governments will probably form their own militias and answer in kind. The people will, as usual, suffer the worst.

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Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster.
Friedrich Nietzsche