IRAQ — CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AND ATTACKS ON U.S. FORCES INCREASE: According to figures compiled by the Iraqi government’s interior, defense and health minitries, “[a] total of 923 civilians were killed in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007.”  The recent clashes between Shi’ite militias and Iraqi and coalition security forces are partly responsible as “[h]undreds of people were killed and many more wounded in last week’s fighting” in Basra. At the same time, “[a]ttacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces soared across Baghdad in the last week of March to the highest levels since the deployment of additional U.S. troops” in Iraq and “reached full strength last June, according to U.S. military data and analysis.” Of the 728 attacks on U.S. forces since the Iraqi military launched the offensive in Basra last week, 60 percent occurred in Baghdad. While “surge” architect and American Enterprise Institute “military analyst” Frederick Kagan recently said “the situation in Iraq today is, I think, not that fragile,” U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith said the recent fighting in Basra and Baghdad “shows the tenuous nature of security, which is something we’ve been stressing for some time now.” 

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008 marked the 5^th anniversary of the war in Iraq. I have struggled for several days to sort out how I felt about this event and how I might put those feelings into words. My mind keeps traveling back to the photo from the NY Times that I have stuck to my bulletin board in my office. In the photo from last year, a young woman lies face down on top of the grave of her fiancé, Sgt. James J. Regan, who was killed in Iraq in February 2007. The caption reads; He is buried in the new Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery for those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also marking Memorial Day weekend were groups for and against the Iraq war who meet every Sunday in Lewes, Del.

I kept the picture because I thought this beautiful young woman reminded me of all the family members who’s loved ones have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. I didn’t want to forget them and I wanted the picture to serve as a visceral reminder. Sadly fewer and fewer of my fellow Americans are bothering to think about the war and it’s effects on our country and it’s people. I read that just 4% of the mainstream medias news coverage concerned the Iraq war last week. Five years after the Iraq war started we have simply lost interest in the story. The calls for an immediate withdrawal have faded and the will of the people has weakened. I wonder even if there were daily protests of the war and demonstrations that attracted hundreds of thousands of people would it even matter to this administration?

Vice President Dick Cheney recently told a reporter that it simply didn’t matter that two thirds of the American public believed that the Iraq war wasn’t worth fighting for. His response was that he refused to be blown off course by “fluctuations in public opinion polls.” Yeah, especially when the public opinion doesn’t agree with your policies.

I’m so deeply saddened by our lack of interest in the fact that men and women are dying daily in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fact that the war continues without end or even talk of an end. Wasn’t the surge supposed to stabilize Iraq so we could begin to withdraw our troops?

For a wry, comedic and dead on look back at the war in Iraq, please go to www.thedailyshow.com and watch Iraq: The 5 Years. It will make you laugh but it will also make you think.

If you would like to learn more about the aftermath of the Iraq war, please come to a free screening of “No End in Sight” an Sundance Film Festival award winning documentary about the debacle that is Iraq today. No End in Sight will be shown, Sunday, April 13th from 2-4pm at the Coffee Underground Theatre in downtown Greenville. Ya’ll come!

What does it say about our state of mind in America when five students are gunned down in a college classroom and the story fades from the headlines almost immediately? The murder-suicide incident on February 14th at Northern Illinois University made the national news for a few days and now is barely mentioned. Considering the fact that every day 79 people are killed by firearms in America it’s no wonder we are numb to the stories about guns and death This week the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed a challenge to the District of Columbia’s gun control laws. With one of the nations highest crime rates, the District took drastic action, banning private ownership of handguns. A ban supported by law enforcement that is struggling to contain the violence caused by handguns. Outside the Supreme Court this week, 2nd Amendment supporters protested and held up signs, one of which said, “More Guns Less Crime.” Not hardly.

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