Two Years After Murtha's Call: Another 1,800 American Troops Dead

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Two Years After Murtha's Call: Another 1,800 American Troops Dead

On November 17, 2005, I wrote in this space that perhaps a kind of "Cronkite moment" had arrived in what already seemed like a long war in Iraq. The hawkish Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) had suddenly, that day, come out with a call to start rapidly removing U.S. troops from the war zone. Almost no editorials would embrace his call.

By Greg Mitchell

(November 17, 2007) -- Two years ago today, I wrote in this space that perhaps a kind of "Cronkite moment" had arrived in what already seemed like a long war in Iraq. The hawkish Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) had suddenly, that day, come out with a call to start rapidly removing U.S. troops from the war zone. I wondered if editorialists and pundits would finally embrace that notion, rather than continue to lag behind the views of the American public.

They didn't, Congress also failed to act, and where are we two years later? We have even more troops in Iraq now -- and far fewer Iraqis there, as the mass exodus and ethnic cleansing has, if you will pardon the expression, "surged." While rampant violence has declined lately, there has been little or no political progress in that country.

The Democrats have just released a statement by Murtha, along with some revealing stats. The first number comes from two years ago, the latter from today.


U.S. troops fatalities: 2,081 (3,865)
U.S. troops wounded: 15,900 (28,400)
Coast to taxpayers: $213.6 billion ($448.6 billion)

And so on, including this stat on the cost of gas at the pump here at home: $2.20 then, $3.11 now.

Then there is the shocking increase in suicides among our Iraq veterans in the past two years, as documented by E&P and CBS News recently.

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