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October 26, 2005
WB: 2000
Comments
What happened to the graphic for 2000? It flashed briefly on my monitor and then was gone and I haven’t been able to get it back? Now there’s just a big long blank space.
Posted by: Sandra | Oct 26 2005 8:16 utc | 1
I counted each one, and had to stop at 60.
My words are no match.
Posted by: mouth | Oct 26 2005 8:24 utc | 2
My god, Billmon.
A silence and a chill came over me tonight and I did what I usually do. I got under my heavy covers in a fetal position and remained there immobilized, looking at and listening to nothing until I warmed up. When I emerged I came down to my computer and found this. I waited for the whole thing to load on my stone age dial up computer and contemplated my human family. And the spiritual, poetic desire embodied within.
My god.
Posted by: jm | Oct 26 2005 8:25 utc | 3
I wonder how many other flags should be there; those who were not US citizens but joined the military to get US citizenship.
Try scrolling down 100,000 Iraqi flags also.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 26 2005 8:51 utc | 5
Being the sociopath he is Bush doesn’t lose a single minute of sleep over any of it. Those soldiers were no more important than the frogs he and his friends blew up as children.
Posted by: steve duncan | Oct 26 2005 11:23 utc | 7
Steve, I’d say they’re less important to him: there was always the danger he might get goop from the frogs on his clothes or something.
I tried to print it in color by selecting and it condensed the images. Is there another way?
Posted by: beq | Oct 26 2005 11:54 utc | 9
Billmon, I just recently discovered the whisky bar and would just like to say that you have one of the best written blogs out there.
Todays post illustrates this in avoiding words, because words aren’t enough.
Posted by: saltydog | Oct 26 2005 12:05 utc | 10
Damn you, Billmon. I had just about convinced myself that the 2000th dead American was just another artificial milestone when you forced us all to realize that every one of these was a unique person, and that we’ve lost them forever. Their friends and families have lost them forever. Each had a universe inside his or her head, and now that universe is gone, vanished. And for no fucking good reason at all.
Posted by: Aigin | Oct 26 2005 12:30 utc | 11
It is certainly the height of devastation to lose a child or loved one to war. It must be especially galling to have to read and hear the reasons for that war were inventions of addled, corrupt minds. To cope with the loss, to stiffly proclaim it was for a good and patriotic cause, must at least for some add insult to injury. How many parents and spouses feel it’s lies they’re mouthing? The families of the fallen would be a potent force for stopping the madness if only living with their losses didn’t entail this rote defense of the criminal conflict that caused them.
Posted by: steve duncan | Oct 26 2005 13:14 utc | 12
The next macabre milestone: Osama Bin Laden caused the deaths of 2,700+ on 9/11. The actions of this administration will probably exceed Bin Laden’s kill score within the next year.
Posted by: macabre | Oct 26 2005 14:22 utc | 13
A US soldier died in a vehicle accident in southern Iraq, the US military announced Wednesday, bringing the American military death toll to 2,001.
Posted by: ccmask | Oct 26 2005 14:33 utc | 14
I had convinced myself that 2000 dead was another artificial milestone until Billmon’s brilliant graphic cut through my complacency.
Posted by: Jim S | Oct 26 2005 14:50 utc | 15
Thank you, Billmon. I hope some freeway bloggers will hang this banner out for all those SUV commuters to see every day.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Oct 26 2005 15:53 utc | 18
The Death-Bed
He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped
Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;
Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,
Soaring and quivering in the wings of sleep.
Silence and safety; and his mortal shore
Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death.
Someone was holding water to his mouth.
He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped
Through crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot
The opiate throb and ache that was his wound.
Water—calm, sliding green above the weir.
Water—a sky-lit alley for his boat,
Bird- voiced, and bordered with reflected flowers
And shaken hues of summer; drifting down,
He dipped contented oars, and sighed, and slept.
Night, with a gust of wind, was in the ward,
Blowing the curtain to a glimmering curve.
Night. He was blind; he could not see the stars
Glinting among the wraiths of wandering cloud;
Queer blots of colour, purple, scarlet, green,
Flickered and faded in his drowning eyes.
Rain—he could hear it rustling through the dark;
Fragrance and passionless music woven as one;
Warm rain on drooping roses; pattering showers
That soak the woods; not the harsh rain that sweeps
Behind the thunder, but a trickling peace,
Gently and slowly washing life away.
He stirred, shifting his body; then the pain
Leapt like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore
His groping dreams with grinding claws and fangs.
But someone was beside him; soon he lay
Shuddering because that evil thing had passed.
And death, who’d stepped toward him, paused and stared.
Light many lamps and gather round his bed.
Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
Speak to him; rouse him; you may save him yet.
He’s young; he hated War; how should he die
When cruel old campaigners win safe through?
But death replied: ‘I choose him.’ So he went,
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.
– Siegfried Sassoon
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 26 2005 16:02 utc | 19
I have read several articles about green card soldiers / soldiers without any close family not being properly accounted for. I have no idea if that is indeed the case, but the total may be well above 2,000. Then there are the ‘contractors.’ No patriot pretense and spin for them, they know the risks they take, are paid and insured in consequence, and take that choice; morally, another ballpark. Still, they die like flies, and cost the US tax payer a bomb (ouch, that was spontaneous.)
I think the death toll should be totted up ten years on, when DU, other pollutants (eng?), inadequate medical care, depression leading to suicide (etc.) can be tallied. And deformed children and late abortions should be counted also.
Powerful graphic. Chilling.
Posted by: Noisette | Oct 26 2005 16:16 utc | 20
The dead cannot cry out for justice;
it is a duty of the living to do so for them.
– Lois McMaster Bujold
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 26 2005 16:28 utc | 21
What happened to the graphic for 2000? It flashed briefly on my monitor and then was gone and I haven’t been able to get it back? Now there’s just a big long blank space.
Sandra, Billmon
I’ve been having that issue with images on The Whiskey Bar for a while now. I usually do a right-click–> view image when there is a space.
Posted by: Chamed Ahlabi | Oct 26 2005 16:49 utc | 23
Autopsies Support Abuse Allegations
Autopsy reports on 44 prisoners who died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan indicate that 21 were victims of homicide, including eight who appear to have been fatally abused by their captors, the American Civil Liberties Union reported Monday.
The abuse involved cases in which detainees were smothered, beaten or exposed to the elements, sometimes during interrogation. Many of these cases had been brought to light previously but now have been confirmed through U.S. military autopsies. Some of the deaths followed abusive interrogations by elite Navy SEALs, military intelligence officers and the CIA, the ACLU said.
…
In one homicide case, a 47-year-old detainee died in U.S. custody from “blunt force injuries and asphyxia” on Jan. 9, 2004, in Al Asad, Iraq, after being shackled to the top of a door frame with a gag in his mouth, according to Army documents. Another document said the case involved “choking.”
In another case, an Iraqi captured by Coronado, Calif.-based SEAL Team 7 and questioned by OGA — an abbreviation for “other government agency,” a term that generally refers to the CIA — died under interrogation at Abu Ghraib due to “blunt force trauma complicated by compromised respiration” after suffering bruises and rib fractures, U.S. military documents show.
@beq-
try right clicking, “save image as” to your computer. Then open image up in a graphics program and print from there.
@macabre-
Someone needs to do some calculations. How many Americans died in 9-11; there were a lot of foreigners in the WTC. Maybe 2300 or so. Add up US military casualties and contractor casualties and we may have surpassed that in “American” deaths already.
Thank you Billmon,
Thank you Outraged – the poem moved me as the graphics.
And thank all you dedicated and occasional patrons at this bar.
Y’all make it a worthy joint to just hang out at in these times of little sollace.
Posted by: Juannie | Oct 26 2005 20:02 utc | 26
Hi – I just wanted to let you know how utterly moving your tribute to the 2000 was. Sometimes a picture is worth so much more than words……..Thanks
Posted by: Priscilla Kenney | Oct 26 2005 22:47 utc | 27
@ malooga
Don’t forget our 246 KIAs in Afghanistan. And it’s beginning to look like this year’s casualties there are going to be double that of ANY previous year. Things have been heating up in Afghanistan as well, but the media continues to ignore it.
Posted by: Ensley | Oct 27 2005 4:27 utc | 28
Ignoring Afghanistan? That’s why Bumsfield is drawing down 20 to 25% of the troops there next year. Army’s overextended and have to start conserving somewhere so might as well do it in the hunt for Osama who and in the narco-state.
Posted by: christofay | Oct 27 2005 9:21 utc | 29