And the War Goes On

CIA Director Porter Goss has resigned and there's word that his replacement is someone at the center of the NSA domestic spying scandal. No matter how much Bush reshuffles the deck, the war in Iraq, as bungled a war as any American has ever seen, remains bungled and will remain so as long as Cheney and Rumsfeld keep their jobs. Even if there are changes, this is a war not providing any advantages to the United States. We are losing people, we are losing our credibility and prestige and this may become a trillion dollar war. And the job in Afghanistan remains to be finished; there are even signs that neglect of Afghanistan is taking its toll. Here are three stories in the last couple of days. First, from Americablog:

2414 soldiers have been killed in Iraq....Is this the progress that the Bush administration is always touting?: "A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad on Friday morning, U.S. military authorities said in a statement."

The Washington Post story that Americablog quotes goes on to report two more soldiers who died when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

Increasingly, the British are experiencing more problems in Basra, the heart of the Shiite areas once considered a key to the armchair ideas and ambitions of the neocons. Here's a story from The Guardian:

Four British servicemen are feared dead after a British helicopter crashed in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that there were a number of casualties, but has not yet given a figure.

An Iraqi policeman at the scene claimed that the helicopter had been fired upon and four bodies were seen in the wreckage. The area was immediately cordoned off by the military.

The residents of Basra seemed to welcome the British three years ago but times have changed.

And now we have word of ten American deaths in Afghanistan. Here's the story from The Washington Post:

Afghanistan -- Ten U.S. soldiers died when their helicopter crashed during combat operations aimed at flushing out militants from remote mountains in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

The crash of the CH-47 Chinook Friday afternoon was the deadliest for U.S. forces here in a year and comes at a time of increasing militant attacks, though U.S. officials ruled out hostile fire as a cause.

"There is no indication that the helicopter came down due to some enemy action," Lt. Tamara D. Lawrence, a coalition spokeswoman, told The Associated Press.

Some 2,500 Afghan and U.S. soldiers are conducting a joint military campaign, dubbed Operation Mountain Lion, in Kunar province near the border with Pakistan. It is one of the biggest offensives since the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 for hosting al-Qaida.

I have no idea if the story of the downing of the helicopter is being spun or not. Helicopters have been notorious for causing many deaths over the years just from equipment failure. My oldest brother served in Vietnam as a helicopter gunner at the Marine base in Da Nang and he said there were more deaths from equipment failure than from enemy fire. Many soldiers felt at the time that US companies were allowing too many defective parts to be installed on helicopters. I don't know what the story is in the current era but we continue to see too many deaths from helicopter crashes.

I can understand the growing pessimism of many people concerning dealing with the failures of the Bush Administration and the growing problems of this nation that are arising out of greed, neglect and incompetence. But there are ways out of the mess consistent with our democracy and our history. But it's going to take time and it's going to take work. I take some small comfort from the polls. Clearly, the winds are changing. It's amusing to watch certain Republicans suddenly pretend that they care as they see their own poll numbers fall.

But too many Americans are still sitting on the sidelines. And that we cannot afford.