http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0114-28.htmPublished in the February 2005 issue of The Progressive
Bring the Troops Home
Editorial
The United States should pull out of Iraq. Already, the United States has lost more than 1,350 soldiers. Already, about 10,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded, at a rate now of almost 1,000 a month.
That is too high a price for us to pay in American blood.
Then there are the Iraqi civilians who have died. According to Iraqbodycount.net, as of January 5, Bush’s war has killed between 15,080 to 17,285 civilians. But that organization compiles statistics only from published reports. According to a study done by public health officials from Johns Hopkins University, the actual total is much higher. Their study, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, says at least 100,000 civilians have died, the majority falling victim to U.S. attacks.
Then there is the cost in American dollars. The United States has spent about $160 billion so far on this war, and the yearly price tag is rising toward $100 billion. This is draining our Treasury of much-needed revenue. For instance, the Administration says it can’t afford $300 million more for Pell grants—less than 0.5 percent of what it is spending on this war. Poor students can’t go to college because Bush went off half-cocked.
The situation in Iraq shows no signs of stabilizing. Quite the contrary. The morbid pace of chaos is increasing. The last six months of 2004 were the deadliest for U.S. troops since Bush launched the war, with 503 U.S. soldiers perishing. And the attacks keep mounting. “The number of attacks on U.S. and allied troops grew from an estimated 1,400 attacks in September to 1,600 in October and 1,950 in November,” Robert Burns of AP reported. In November 2003, by contrast, the number of attacks was 864.
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