Four Thousand Dead

It's been five years and 4,000 dead now.


Picture's from the Huffington Post, by the way. Only wish I could make something as poignant myself.

Instead, I can only link to what's awesome in some vain hope of some of those bountiful smarts rubbing off on me.

In all seriousness (Not that Mr. Henley was speaking with anything but tongue firmly in cheek. I just, you know, want to say something substantive instead of linkbloggy here.), I'm as sickened as anyone outside of the Brookings Institute that anti-war voices have been so consistently and effectively shut out of the conversation. We can't go anywhere as a country unless we hold ourselves accountable for our own mistakes. We can only continue to spin our wheels in the same morass.

And, no, hawkish voices bleating in the op-ed pages about how they were so misguided or mislead but "right to be so wrong" is not the way forward.

But I think we could use a lot less thinking about who thought what when and who was right about what. Instead, what we need to think about why people thought one way or another. Because, in the final accounting, what matters is not whose soul is cleansed or who is still screaming out damn spot but that we all, together, drove our country off the side of a cliff. What's important is that the complaints weren't heard, the dissent wasn't headed, and the wrong decision was made.

What's critical is making sure that doesn't happen again.

Mr. Bush (When he wasn't rattling his sabre towards Iran. Again.) assured us all today that the legions of dead we've stacked up in the desert won't have died in vain. I can't think of any better way to honor their sacrifice than to make sure that the next batch of young men and women who stand in harm's way won't have to endure similar treatment.