Here is a statistic that you won't see reported in the mainstream media. In the past few days the casualties (killed & wounded) from Bush's Iraq adventure have reached the point where they now exceed every major US military action after Vietnam and before his presidency COMBINED.
According to the Center for Defense Information there were a total of
2,013 casualties in Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Southwest Asia, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Kosovo, and Yugoslavia;
http://www.cdi.org/products/almanac0102.pdfMeanwhile, according to the best site for casualties in Iraq there have now been a total of
2,056 there;
http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspxEven if we throw in smaller military actions like the Korea 'tree cutting' incident (6), the failed Iran hostage rescue (13), El Salvador (9), Libya (2?), attacks on the Stark and other ships in the Gulf (70), and all the lesser actions for which there are NO reported casualties the total is just slightly higher than Iraq alone. Of course, if we extend it into Bush's term pre-Iraq the continuing casualties in Afghanistan (~150+) make a big difference.
The wingnuts love to say that Iraq is nowhere near as bad as Vietnam. That is true, but hardly a glowing endorsement considering that it is worse than everything SINCE Vietnam combined.