Hey Jack, how many times do you remember the prior administration crowing to the public that the sanctions against Iraq that they supported killed over 1,000,000 Iraqis (by the UN's estimation)?

Good information about the Lancet study can be found in two different episodes of This American Life. Episode #300 from 2005 covers the first Lancet study that determined, with a smaller sample size earlier on, that about 300,000 people had died. Episode #320 from 2006 covers the second, larger, later, and more accurate study that found 600,000 people had died. Episode #320 ends with a discussion of the "debate" over the Lancet study.

Both episodes are well worth the time to listen to them for free online. Unfortunately the This American Life web site is down at the moment, so I cannot supply direct links.

The news is out there if you escape the bubble.

Bookmark the scorecard.

30,000 per month...oh, yeah. Totally worth it.

Thanks for that link, Tenskwatawa. I'm reading Rebuilding America's Defenses right now.

We recently saw in the news that private contractors in Iraq (working for the US Government, as I understand it) outnumber the 160,000 or so US troops there by more than ten percent. Not all of them are US citizens -- Iraqi and third-country nationals are included. But the casualty figures I've seen don't seem to include them expressly. If you assume a 1-2% casualty ratio, that would be another 3,000 or so deaths so far.

From the Washington Post, Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A12: "A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442.html

Half a million here, a million there... Any way counted, the numbers are barbaric -- and insufferable.

We must re-order our lives to bear witness, to stop what is being done in our names and with our money. We must be The Good Americans who stand up to the regime, every day, and in countless, courageous ways.

For the counters, that's at least 70% of the U.S. populace now.

And this isn't a partisan or personal issue, it's a moral issue. It's not about disliking Bush or Cheney or their henchmen -- it's so much bigger than these small, sad, weak people. It's about standing up to the forces of darkness, and we have the power to do it.

Bless you, Hula, and ten millions more, who can read the writing on the pall. ("The words of the prophets are written ... ")

And now for something noteworthy and not widely seen, in and about the PNAC task force who signed 'Rebuilding America's Defenses.'

The PNAC group was conceived in the final gaspings of POTUS#41 Bush, after Nov.'92 rejection and before Jan.'93 removal. (During the same interval he violated Pentagon Generals's advice, and so viciously ordered Marines and military invasion of Somalia, deliberately unsustainable, to harm and handicap Clinton's arrival -- like leaving a live grenade on the seat in the Oval Office.)

GHWB, ('Herbert,' let's say, together), lost his groove, left in the lurch wanting militaristic mein, after USSR quit the Cold stalemate game and settled back to being Russia. Herbert first blurted out that he should enact a Peace Dividend, and be rebating the taxes wasted in an unneeded Pentagon-a-palooza. Quickly he was re-dosed by his Saudi controllers -- when we shut down military industry, they lose their supplier of scimitars, swords, daggers and sabers, also the US Army that's their Royal bodyguards -- 'hey, do you want the oil, or not;' (remember, Herbert was a Royal Box-honored guest at the regular Friday, dirtfloor sporting arena, free-swung scimitar decapitation executions of their 'criminals,' more than once. That's not a question to you, it's a point worth bearing in mind ... as you keep yours in working order. Remember the Saudi Royals cashed him out of zilch-for-six-years Zapata, in '53?) Re-swayed to the dark force, Herbert half-recanted from rebating unnecessary taxes, to swearing 'no new ones.' Three words in the English language that need not and should not ever be spoken: "Read my lips." In an awful show of who's boss, and watching, gas prices fell up during the '92 campaign season, untimely for Herbert without gravitas to hold them down.

And he was bounced out of office and back in the shadows again. That's when he got, or was given, the PNAC plan. Which, as you read in Rebuilding America's Defenses, demands lots and lots of new taxes and the martial law that rides in on them.

As soon in '93 as Herbert was bunkered in his Kennebunkport keep, he selected, derivatively financed, convened, commissioned, instructed, and proxy directed, that whole PNAC shebang. Did I mention Herbert ordered exactly what they'd write? That was the moment, mid-'93, sadistic gleam in his eye, camel nose in his bunker, was born Nine-Eleven Op 2001. Uh, I mean, 'a new Pearl Harbor.' (Remember he was a high school senior in the first Pearl Harbor, spitefully traumatized that it sooo TOtally changed his plans for after graduation?)

The PNAC committee met, wrote, re-met, re-wrote, revised, re-met, and revised some more -- '93, 94, '95 ... '99, and signed off. There were practice runs, dress rehearsals, and a couple of miscarriage still-births along the way.

He coulda shoulda woulda had Dole -- fire, ready, aim, after '96, but the election machinery worked right, so that'd be fixed, next time. You know his other snafus and fizzles, too, (you just never looked at them darkly in the post-N.E.O. light).

There was the first Twin Towers bombing, (pinned on some blind sheik from Egypt, who, it turns out, had a history of CIA connections; but that wily Bill Clinton didn't declare war on anybody ... no government property had been damaged). There was the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, (p.s. Tim McVeigh, like Lee Harvey Oswald, was mostly uncomplicit, the fall-guy on standby, with CIA links; remember the first news (Apr.19,20,21 '95), identified an 'olive-complexion man wearing a turban seen catching a plane' out of OK City, they 'caught him,' or found one, innocent, in London? Damned Clinton still didn't declare war.) There was the USS Cole surface-to-surface missiling, (not the rubber liferaft -- Herbert's WW II flashback, again -- loaded with explosives as news reports told us; damn Clinton is useless, that was government and military property damage, just like a real Pearl Harbor). There was the synchronized-watches twin embassy bombings, Kenya and Tanzania, (and still no Middle East 'war' -- what?, two dinky cruise missile twitches?, and one hit an aspirin factory? pfffft; although, Clinton was busy being impeached at the time; read clues here with new dark-vision eyesight).

You say, "WHAT?, those were all staged hoax attacks? And so was Nine-Eleven Op? But I saw it with my own eyes, well, but on TV, I mean, and, except for the Pentagon part. But the news wouldn't lie to us !? Besides, NObody's got that much clout. NObody's in a position to set up all those different hoaxes."

ONEbody is. And only ONE. Herbert owns the CIA. His name is on it. 'GHWB' right across the front of CIA HQ, all spelled out. Anything you can imagine the CIA doing, (motto: Anything. Anywhere. Anytime.), Herbert can order doing. Put that little contact lens on your dark-vision goggles and look around and think twice.

So, by Sept. 2000, the date on PNAC's Rebuilding America's Defenses, the election two months away was a done deal. And if it needed a scrotum visegrip on the SCOTUS, as it evidently did, (notice the Gore v. Bush ruling was unsigned and the vote unrecorded?), then who is the Only ONE who could handle that bag job? Then, with an offer she couldn't refuse, no mystery why O'Connor bailed (into the shadows) -- she could count, and she knows someday we will, too.

Simply to refresh your Nine-Eleven Op recall, (now that you know why it had to be the Towers and military property ... and after that, no need for the backup, fourth bogie), the first anthrax letter got mailed Ten-Four, to Florida tabloids, with weapons grade-sized spores, available from ... wait for it ... Only ONE source on the planet, and Herbert's name and probably fingerprints are on it.

Hula, bless you, and all who can read and then do read: Bless us all, every ONE.

("... on the subway walls / And tenement halls / And whispered .... " )

The last train is nearly due
The underground is closing soon
And in the dark deserted station
Restless in anticipation
A man waits in the shadows -- P. Simon 1966

The was ONE slip, twixt cup and lip.

It happened between the 1993 conception of PNAC and the 2001 N.E.O. delivery: The internets was invented.

hmmmmmm ... hadn't really allowed for that to happen ...