A Word About Casualties and Proportion

Much has been made about the media’s grisly casualty benchmarks. They feel the need to point out every time we reach another thousand troops killed, even though it takes months for this to happen.

It’s been said before, but the bottom line–still–is that casualties in the Iraq War are nowhere near that of previous wars. In fact, the last time we formally declared war and lost less than 4,000 men and women, it was 1812.

Let’s take a look at actual figures.

Vietnam: 58,195 in 12 years, or an average of 4,850 per year (not accounting for the bell curve of actual casualties over peak time).

Korea: 54,246 in four years, or 13,561 per year.

WWII: 408,306 in four and a half years, or 90,735 per year.

WWI: 116,708 in five years, or 23,340 per year.

Civil War: some estimates are at 625,000, or 156,250 a year.

Now let’s look at Iraq.

4,531. In five years.

That’s less than 1,000 per year. We lost that in an hour on some battlefields, and no one flinched. It is the price of freedom.

When will we stop hearing the tired old argument about casualties?  Liberals need to shut up about casualties.  I’ve lost friends, my friends have lost friends.  We all have.  But they died knowing what apparently people like you antiwar jackasses can’t seem to understand: They died for something.  While tragic, their deaths preserve that much more time that you can freely go where you wish.  Their deaths make it possible for you to road trip to your next rally without having to show papers at a checkpoint somewhere because you crossed state lines.

Just my thoughts.

White House Compares Illegal Immigration To A Traffic Ticket

SNOW JOB #12 or 13, whichever…he hasn’t been at the White House too long.

Via the Examiner:

The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.

“If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you’re not forever a speeder, are you?” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.

“So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society,” he added. “And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward.”

Hmph. Izzat so? I tell ya, November cannot get here too soon. As for Bush, I guess we just have to grit our teeth and endure until ‘08, when we can elect an Independent by an unprecedented margin.

Great Minds Think Alike?

You know you’re in trouble when Jimmy “The Dhimmi” Carter agrees with you:

Former president Carter, a Democrat and frequent critic of President Bush, sees eye-to-eye with him on immigration.
Carter on Wednesday called the Republican president’s commitment to immigration reform “quite admirable,” saying he agrees with Bush’s support of a system that would eventually grant citizenship to some illegals. …

The law should secure the nation’s borders while “at the same time treating those who are here with respect and giving them some hope for the future,” Carter said.

Yeah, if Bush didn’t think he was sinking before, he’s gotta be worried now that Carter’s on board.

H/T: Captain Ed

Transcript of Bush’s Immigration Speech

Allahpundit has an incredibly interesting round up of blogger reaction to the speech. Looks like a majority thumbs down for the Prez’s platitudes.

In case you missed it, the text of Bush’s speech is in the extended entry for your reading pleasure.

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Could She Be More Clueless?

So Laura Bush travels the country and hears what nice things people say about her husband and simply won’t believe that his approval rating has sunk to record lows:

Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, Laura Bush said she did not think people were losing confidence in President George W. Bush, despite a series of polls showing support for him at its lowest point in his five-year presidency and among the lowest for any president in the past 50 years.

“I don’t really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me,” she said.

“As I travel around the United States, I see a lot of appreciation for him. A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘Stay the course’.”

So what explains the poor approval rating, dear lady?

“We’ve had a very, very difficult year, starting with the hurricane last September, but already because of the terrorist attack in 2001 and then the war on terror since then,” she said. “He’s the one that has to make the hard decisions. And, of course, they don’t please everyone.”

Not one word about illegal immigration. I wonder if the White House thinks that if they just don’t mention it, the problem doesn’t exist.

Sweet lady. Classy lady. Nice lady. But OSTRICH feathers don’t look so lovely on her. She’s better than that.

It’s The Borders, Stupid!

President Bush’s job rating is bottoming out around 32 points or fluctuating between 32 and 40, depending on which polling entity you look at. Thusly, the President is shaking up his White House staff, seeking ways to bolster his sagging numbers. His new Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten, has prepared this genius plan:

Deploy Guns and Badges

Under the banner of homeland security, the White House plans to seek more funding for an extremely visible enforcement crackdown at the Mexican border.

Make Wall Street Happy

In an effort to curry favor with dispirited Bush backers in the investment world, the Administration will focus on two tax measures already in the legislative pipeline to please investors.

Brag More

White House officials…. are planning a more focused and consistent effort to talk about the [Medicare] program’s successes after months of press reports on start-up difficulties… and highlight any glimmer of success in Iraq….

Reclaim Security Credibility

Presidential advisers believe that by putting pressure on Iran, Bush may be able to rehabilitate himself on national security, a core strength that has been compromised by a discouraging outlook in Iraq.

Court The Press

Administration officials said [new White House chief of staff Josh Bolten] believes the White House can work more astutely with journalists to make its case to the public…. His first move… was to offer the press secretary job to Tony Snow of Fox News… who served George H.W. Bush as speechwriting director.

Whatever, whatever. So Scott McClellen is out, and suave Foxer Tony Snow is in. Nothing like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, wouldn’t you say? How stupid. I think it’s about time the White House recognizes that it’s not the messenger - it’s the message!

It’s the BORDERS, stupid!

C’mon, some genius in the White House needs to tell Bush that he has to do only ONE THING to see his numbers skyrocket into the 60s or higher: call a press conference and announce that troops will be stationed on the border, and a fence is going up. That single act alone would whiplash his ratings. But nevermind…

Bush’s core constituency has been used and abused these past two years. We They have staunchly supported him aginst the “Bush Lied” doctrine, we they have had his back on staying the course in Iraq, we they have never once backed down from the GWOT. We They have since forgiven him out-of-control federal spending, Harriet Meiers, the UAE ports deal. When the White House was incapable of making the argument for Katrina response and NSA wire-tapping, we they made it for him. Never has a President enjoyed such vociferous and long-suffering support from his core base.

But that’s the base he has kicked to the curb and left there, bleeding and broken. That’s the base that he spit upon when he sneered that the Minutemen were nothing more than “vigilantes”. That core of conservative voters, bloggers, and activists is who he has repeatedly scorned in his efforts to curry the Latino vote or erase or borders or establish his family’s stupid One World Order or whatever - who knows why he’s doing what he’s doing?! It doesn’t make any logical sense at all! I don’t know who President Bush is answering to, but with 81% of the American people wanting our borders secured and laws enforced, I know for sure it’s not US!

President Bush and a group of senators yesterday reached general agreement on an immigration bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for many illegal aliens.

But left out of the closed-door White House meeting were senators who oppose a path to citizenship. The meeting even snubbed two men who had been considered allies of Mr. Bush on immigration — Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and chairman of the immigration subcommittee, and Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican.
[...]
And Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, said Mr. Bush “endorsed the concept of an earned citizenship.”

That would represent a substantial change on the part of the Bush administration, which just last year said it opposed a path to citizenship for those currently here illegally.

I have been emailing, faxing, and phoning my senator, John Cornyn, every single week for ages! I knew he wasn’t strong on the enforcement of our current immigration laws, but I was doing my best to change his mind. It’s the only way I feel like I can have an impact on the direction of my out-of-control government! But now Bush is getting around the uncomfortable truth that his home state is NOT behind him, by simply ignoring us!

When Bush cut my senator out of the loop, he cut ME out of the loop. Where do I go now to advocate my point of view? There are no words to describe my fury! And Bush goes merrily on his way, screwing the American people, whoring out to the Mexican government and its people, and shutting out his home state of Texas. If he’s capable of that, he’s not worthy of his office.

Look how pleased he is with himself! Here’s a picture of two of our Open Borders pimps, absolutely thrilled with their progress:

I never understood why people hated Bush so deeply. I would listen to my good friend and neighbor, a Democrat, and was always shocked to hear how viscerally she hated Bush. I totally get it now. I. am. feelin’. it.

Keep An Eye On George Allen

Who is George Allen? I’ve heard rumors that he’s an emerging front-runner for a Republican presidential candidate in ‘08. He hasn’t actually announced he’s running yet, but he appears to be the early favorite among former NFL players-turned-politicians.

From NewsMax: “The Virginia Republican – son of NFL Hall of Fame coach George Allen – hosted a pre-Super Bowl fund-raiser in Detroit that attracted pro-football legends Steve Largent, a former congressman from Oklahoma; Lynn Swann, who is running for governor in Pennsylvania; and Jack Kemp, who ran for president in 1988 and vice president in 1996. Allen is a ‘rising star in the Republican Party and around the country,’ Kemp told the publication The Hill.”

“Rising star?”, I thought, “Who is this guy?” So I went and did a little digging on the Senator from Virginia.

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