And so this is Christmas

This from the AP

U.S. deaths in Iraq exceed 9-11 count

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago
Two more American soldiers were killed in Iraq, officials said Tuesday, pushing the U.S. military death toll to at least 2,974 — one more than the number killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The tragic milestone came with the deaths of the two soldiers Monday in a bomb explosion southwest of Baghdad, the military said.

The deaths — announced Tuesday — raised the number of troops killed to 2,974 since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes at least seven military civilians. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks claimed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

"The joint patrol was conducting security operations in order to stop terrorists from placing roadside bombs in the area," the military said in a statement on the latest deaths. "As they conducted their mission, a roadside bomb exploded near one of their vehicles."

Another soldier was wounded in the explosion, the military said.

On Monday, the U.S. command announced the deaths of two other soldiers and a Marine. It said one soldier died and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle in southern Baghdad on Monday. An American soldier and a Marine died Sunday from combat wounds suffered in Anbar province.

Prior to the deaths announced Tuesday, the AP count was 15 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST. At least 2,377 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The British military has reported 126 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 18; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, six; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, one death each.

On Monday, British soldiers backed by tanks raided a police station in the southern city of Basra, killing seven gunmen in an effort to stop renegade Iraqi officers from executing their prisoners, the British military said.
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We just keep passing these terrible milestones.

500 dead.

1,000 dead.

2,000.

Longer than Korea.

Longer that the American Civil War.

Longer that WWII.

And now this. Of course since the conquest and occupation of Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, passing this particular number should have no intrinsically tragic value greater or less than any other, but it does.

And as these markers flicker past us in the gloom, they reflect enough gray light to clearly show that we are on a steepening descent. Running downward so fast that soon our toes will barely touch the ground, and we will no longer be able to call it anything but falling.

Into deeper darkness we plunge, and as we go down the man welded inside the bulletproof bubble with the smirk and the room temperature IQ and the nuclear launch codes says over and over again that all is well, that God personally acts through him, and although he is the elected representative of the American people he now mysteriously asserts that some Secret Protocol buried within that job description and known only to him says he no longer has to listen to anyone about anything.

Ever.

And his media minions with their vinyl hair and button eyes continue to marinade in their fascist warporn fantasies and smile and smile and nod and nod.

Sorry, but it doesn’t feel like Christmas right now.

It feels like this.