But at what cost?
As with Sen. Wyden, Representative Brian Baird is proving he's no wimp as he takes the heat on KPOJ having just returned back from Iraq with the news that the escalation has brought change. I'm looking at the casualty figure right now and the change is this... the highest rate of US deaths in the entire war.
| Period | US | UK | Other* | Total | Avg | Days |
| 6-2007 | 101 | 7 | 0 | 108 | 3.6 | 30 |
| 5-2007 | 126 | 3 | 2 | 131 | 4.23 | 31 |
| 4-2007 | 104 | 12 | 1 | 117 | 3.9 | 30 |
| 3-2007 | 81 | 1 | 0 | 82 | 2.65 | 31 |
| 2-2007 | 81 | 3 | 1 | 85 | 3.04 | 28 |
| 1-2007 | 83 | 3 | 0 | 86 | 2.77 | 31 |
This is not progress. The congressman is actually willing to wait until "sometime next Spring" to begin bringing our part in this fiasco to an end. Do the math... 70, 80, perhaps a hundred more Americans a month coming home in caskets!
Baird is actually calling for more men and women to sign up and ship off to Iraq, though he says "I don't believe a draft is necessary at this point." Yet we already have a "poverty draft." We have been experiencing a draw-down by attrition as the military struggles to meet recruiting goals. Besides the 100,000 private contractors, (some of whom guard our top brass!) we're throwing even more good money after bad in hopes of luring Americans, desperate in their economic circumstances, with $20,000 signing bonuses to ship out immediately. I suppose this might be cheaper than the current $1.5 billion this year we're spending on both domestic and foreign mercenaries. Some "earn" as much as $30,000 a month.
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