Safer My A#@

Huffingtonpost has the best commentators. Here's the post from Bob Geiger today:

"War on Terror" Numbers to Silence Republicans

When George W. Bush made a prime-time television appearance Monday night to give a political speech -- under the guise of commemorating the five-year anniversary of September 11 -- he started right off by telling both a lie and the truth in one short sentence.

"Today, we are safer, but we are not yet safe," said Bush, which means he was batting .500 with the truth in just one short statement. Not bad for him. It is undeniably true that we are not yet safe, but to imply that we are safer than we were before Bush turned the world against us is demonstrably false.

And Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) sketched out the only numbers needed to confirm that Bush's "war on terror" is not only going very badly, but has gotten much, much worse on his watch.
"Osama bin Laden is still on the loose. Al-Qaeda's membership, estimated at 20,000 on 9/11, is now estimated by our intelligence agencies at 50,000. Instead of shrinking and disappearing, they are growing geometrically," said Durbin on the Senate floor Tuesday, in describing how unsafe Republicans have made America.

Now there's a number we want to talk a lot about between now and the midterm elections, as Republicans beat their chests and say how safe they've kept Americans.

And Durbin's numbers check out. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, "U.S. intelligence estimates put the total number of fighters who underwent instruction at bin Laden-supported camps in Afghanistan from 1996 through 9/11 at 10,000 to 20,000."

And recent research by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, funded by the Department of Homeland Security and other government grants, says that the number of Al-Qaeda has jumped from the 20,000 reported by the 9/11 Commission a few years ago to 50,000 today.
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The fact that we haven't been attacked since 9/11 is pretty pathetic evidence of Republicans keeping us any safer than we would be if Democrats were in power. It's the 11th hour before the midterm elections and this is the card Repubs are choosing to play: If you vote for Democrats YOU WILL DIE. Okay, maybe not so blatant, but any intelligent person can see that this is what they're trying to imply. So, you've made us safer have you? Lets look at some more numbers....

The number of Americans who have died in the supposed "War on Terror" in Iraq (which had nothing to do with the War on Terror before we invaded it) is now approaching the number of Americans who died on September 11th, 2001.

Innocent lives lost on 9/11: 2,973

American lives lost in military operation in Iraq: at least 2,658

Not to mention wounded: at least 19,945

Iraqi civilian deaths: upwards of 40,000 (no one really knows, since the US military refuses to do body counts)

Judging by the numbers alone, one can come to the obvious conclusion that President Bush's new talking point "We are safer, but not yet safe" is false (depending on how you read it because it doesn't make much, if any sense in the first place)

So whose life is more important? Is it an Afghani, Iraqi, or an American life? Judging by the results of our past battles, and recent and current ongoing battles to occupy Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo, it appears that American life is held above all others.

Ask yourself this: Is your life more important than anyone elses in this country? How about in a country that's located on the other side of the world? Does it make your life more valuable simply because you had the lucky circumstance of being born in the United States of America?

When an American dies due to terrorism or warfare it is broadcast world wide with all the facts and details in living color. The death or deaths are decried vehemently by the government and mass media. Retribution and retaliation are called for, and vengeance and payback are demanded by the public and leaders to right the situation.

You will never hear of the civilian deaths in foreign countries openly discussed. No one in America ever calls for retribution and retaliation when U.S. or allied bombs kill innocent civilians through so called "collateral damage". Most of the time you will never even know innocent lives were lost.