In Friday’s edition of The New York Times they released the names of latest casualties to have died in Iraq this past week bringing the total of casualties to 3,179. Their names are listed below.
BELL, Ryan M., 21, Specialist; Colville, Wash.; 82nd Airborne Division.
ESTES, Justin M., 25, Staff Sgt., Army: Sims, Ark.; 82nd Airborne Division.
GRAHAM, Mark W., 22, Pvt., Army; Lafayette, La.; First Cavalry Division.
KASSON, Darrel D., 43, Staff Sgt., Army; Florence, Ariz.; 259th Security Forces Company.
KOSTERS, Cory C., 19, Pfc., Army; The Woodlands, Tex.; 82nd Airborne Division.
PERKINS, Andrew C., 27, Sgt., Army; Northglenn, Colo.; 82nd Airborne Division.
ROLLINS, Justin A., 22, Specialist, Army; Newport, N.H.; 82nd Airborne Division.
STANLEY, Robert M., 27, Staff Sgt., Army; Spotsylvania, Va.; 82nd Airborne Division.
I would like to know who exactly we hold accountable for these soldier's deaths. These names are not abstracts or mere statistics as congress continues to debate this war.
In his column for the Washington Post, Peter Baker wrote this in response to the Scooter Libby verdict, “The risk for Democrats would be overplaying the accountability hand. Their attempts to impose limits on Bush's ability to fight the war have collapsed repeatedly and left them unable to fashion a coherent approach to the most serious issue in the country. Some Republicans suggested that the public could tire of repeated hearings such as those held this week and write them off to partisanship.”
The Democrats came into power as the majority in both houses this past Election Day and should not be afraid of using that political capital and spend it as the voters said to every politician that they wanted this war over with. If they are indeed afraid of expending this political capital, then they have no business holding the seat they were elected to. Fear and leadership do not go hand in hand.
If you as a voter elected these Democrats into power, it is your responsibility to stand by each and everyone that is calling for an end to this war. Stand up for your votes and your beliefs. It is that simple. Do not buy into the message that not funding this war is not supporting the troops. You support the troops by bringing them home from an unjust and illegal war. Senator John F. Kerry once said, “You use the military because you have to and not because you want to.” Our military did not need to go to Iraq since it was not Iraq that attacked us. That is one of the reasons that Patrick Fitzgerald prosecuted Scooter Libby in the first place.
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