It's Been 10 Years And Nothing Has Been Done By Congress

Ten years ago, a criminal armed with an assault-style rifle entered an elementary school I'm Connecticut and killed 20 6 and 7 year old children and six adult teachers. Reasonable people thought surely this would cause Congress to pass some sensible gun laws -- like banning assault-style weapons and closing the huge loopholes in the background check law.

We were wrong. Congress has done virtually NOTHING that would prevent a repeat of Sandy Hook -- and indeed, it has been repeated in Uvalde, Texas. 

As of December 14th, 628 mass shootings have occurred in the United States this year -- and 42,167 people have died from gun violence.

Republicans whine about the Second Amendment as the reason they refuse to pass sensible gun laws. But neither an assault-style weapon ban nor background checks for ALL gun buyers would violate the Constitution's Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has already ruled about both, and found the constitutional.

The truth is that too many politicians (mainly Republicans) consider gun manufacturer profits (and the campaign donations from them) to be more important than the lives of Americans (both children and adults).

This will not change until these politicians, who have the blood of children on their hands, are voted out of office.

What Are We Fighting For ?

Most of the time Americans don't even remember we're still in the midst of two foreign wars. The wars have been going on so long that they don't even make the papers or newscasts on most days, and Americans haven't been asked to sacrifice to support the wars -- either through a draft or higher taxes (even though it's costing more than $2 billion a week).

But the real cost of those wars hit the headlines a few days ago, when 30 Americans (most of them Navy Seals) were killed at one time as the Afghan insurgents downed an American helicopter. That was too many deaths for anyone to ignore. The generals have announced that the insurgents who shot down the helicopter have been killed. They called in jets and bombed them.

I guess we are supposed to feel better because the American deaths have been avenged, but for me it just posed a couple of troubling questions. If it was that easy to kill these insurgents, why were we sending troops there to fight them in the first place? Why didn't we just send the jets? Are they telling us the truth or just trying to make us feel better about too many American deaths.

And there have been too many American deaths, although they usually come in smaller (and less newsworthy) groups. To date, there have been 1,731 American soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan (and another 4,474 killed in Iraq). And Americans continue to die regularly in both countries. Here are the yearly figures for both wars:

2001
Afghanistan..........12

2002
Afghanistan..........49

2003
Afghanistan..........48
Iraq..........486

2004
Afghanistan..........52
Iraq..........849

2005
Afghanistan..........99
Iraq..........846

2006
Afghanistan..........98
Iraq..........822

2007
Afghanistan..........117
Iraq..........904

2008
Afghanistan..........155
Iraq..........314

2009
Afghanistan..........317
Iraq..........149

2010
Afghanistan..........499
Iraq..........60

2011 (so far)
Afghanistan..........285
Iraq..........44

That's 6,205 brave young Americans who have been killed, and an equal number of grieving families -- not to mention all the Afghan civilians and soldiers, and the soldiers from other countries that have been killed. A heavy price has already been paid, and neither war is anywhere near being over.

The government has already admitted that we will stay in Afghanistan until the end of 2014 at least, if not longer. And while we are legally supposed to have all of our soldiers out of Iraq by the end of this year, the U.S. government is pressuring the Iraqis to agree to keep American soldiers there longer (and it's anybody's guess how much longer).

Which brings up the biggest questions of all. Has anything been accomplished? Can anything be accomplished? If we are honest we'll have to admit that the answer to both of those countries is a resounding NO. Both wars are looking more and more like our misadventure in Vietnam -- where we were also locked into an endless and un-winnable war to support a weak and corrupt regime (that fell as soon as we left).

The blog Newshoggers reminded me today of one of the best anti-war songs ever -- written by Country Joe McDonald during the Vietnam War. I can't think of a better way to end this post than with the words from that song. If you just substitute Afghanistan (or Iraq) for Vietnam, the song works just as well today as it did in the sixties.

Well, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun. 

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die. 

Come on Wall Street, don't be slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of its trade,
But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong. 

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.  

Come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, and don't hesitate
To send your sons off before it's too late.
And you can be the first ones in your block
To have your boy come home in a box. 

And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die. 

2007 Most Deadly Year Of Iraq War For U.S.

The Republicans and the White House would like for us to believe that we're turning the corner in Iraq, and things are going to get better there now. After all, the deaths of United States soldiers went down last month to only 38 (which is still 38 deaths too many when you consider that nothing has been accomplished).

So far, there have been 3,857 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq (not counting the soldiers that died after being evacuated). The sad part is that Iraq is no closer to a stable government than they were last year or the year before. Their own security forces are still a joke, and there's no way they could maintain the peace if the U.S. was to pull out. Hell, they can't even maintain the peace while we are there.

While Bush wants to pretend things are getting better, the truth is that 2007 has been the most deadly year of the war for U.S. troops. So far this year, 854 of our soldiers have been killed. Until now, the bloodiest year of the war for the United States was 2004 when 849 deaths were recorded. Sadly, there are still seven weeks left in 2007.

Isn't it time to withdraw all of our troops and let the Iraqis determine their own future? They don't want us there (except for the members of the puppet government we installed), and the American people don't want our troops to remain there.

No matter how much Bush would like to, we cannot force a settlement of the civil war, or a government on Iraq. This is something they must accomplish for themselves. Some say there will be bloodshed if we leave and that is probably true. But our staying is only costing lives while delaying the inevitable solution.

Hopefully, the Republicans will be swept from the White House in the next election, but that is a full year from now. If we must wait for that, there will be another 800-900 dead American soldiers. That is unacceptable.

It is time for Democrats to step up and do what they were elected to do -- stop the war. They have the power to defund the war and force Bush to bring our troops home. All they need now is the political courage to do it.