898 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in 2007

Much noise continues to be made by war supporters (of which there are few) about how great the war is going. In late 2007, violence dropped from its peak in early 2007 - but 2007 was still the deadliest year yet for the American military, bringing a record 898 casualties (an average of almost 2½ per day).

In other words, the first part of 2007 was so bad that the last 2 months of the year were actually an improvement.

So that's how they twist this into a positive story? By pointing out how it's an improvement over what had to have been the deadliest 6 months yet? The only real improvement will be when the war is ended for good: There were zero casualties before the war started.

It's a bit like how the gas prices soared throughout 2006, so that when they dropped slightly just before the election, the Republicans and the media tried putting a happy face on that.

The armchair chickenhawks (who wank furiously just thinking about this war) credit the springtime surge with reducing violence. But actually the worst months for both the U.S. military and Iraqi civilians came right after the surge - so that's another crackpot argument of theirs blown clean out of the water.

Any presidential or congressional candidate who doesn't have immediate pullout on their agenda doesn't deserve a single damn vote. With Bush's call-up of the Ohio National Guard, I have a feeling the casualties for the past few months are actually much higher than the government claims.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_casualties)