wasting America's promise one life at a time

(Photo taken from Daily Kos.)

If you need a face for the 2,600+ Americans who have died in Iraq, think of Emily Perez. See Daily Kos (8ackgr0und N015e) to learn about her. She's also got an obit on the Washington Post website.

[UPDATE1: Gulf News (AP):

Now the death toll is 9/11 times two. US military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan have surpassed those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America's history.

The latest milestone came on Friday without commemoration nor the precision of knowing who was the 2,974th to die in conflict.

[UPDATE2: Seattle Times (Mark Mazzetti, New York Times):

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by U.S. intelligence agencies has found that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials who were involved in preparing the assessment or have read the final document.

[To summarize we've killed a bunch of out people--good people--pursuing President Bush's policies and the policies have made the threat greater.]