Middle east Wake up.

An interesting claim I stumbled across at Lou Dobbs blog:

"An estimated 50,000 Iraqis and more than 2,500 American troops have been killed since the insurgency began in March of 2003 [in Iraq], which by some estimates is more than the number of dead on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict over the past 58 years of wars and intifadas."

This just absolutely blew my mind. Generally, when we think of long term, never ending conflict, we think of Israel and Palestine/Lebanon region. The constant barrage of news clips over the decades, plus high budget motion picture movies, such as Munich, help remind us of the ever lasting conflict.

Yet enter the United States. We are (IN PART) responsible for more violence and deaths in Iraq over a course of just 3 years! That's crazy when you think about how a president like Jimmy Carter was a lame duck due to the hostage situation by Iran that resulted in 66 hostages. So, we dump a president because he couldn't get the US hostages home (hostages were released when Carter left office, mostly due to Carters commitment to their release). Yet today we re-elect a president that responsible for the quote above, plus scores of US citizens (mostly contractors) that have been taken hostage and in some cases killed, plus no exit strategy. (Note: Private companies don't have to make public the kidnapping or deaths of its workers in Iraq) As a "common sense" Republican...that makes no sense. Iraq is becoming Americas Forgotten War.