4000

Bush's War has reached a grim milestone - when four soldiers died in a roadside bombing Sunday night, the official American death toll there passed 4000. (CNN)

As far as America's historical war casualty totals go (WW1 - 116,000; WW2 - 405,000; Vietnam 58,000; source - fas.org), that 4000 doesn't seem like much, but it's a record for wars that we've started, and started under false pretenses.

Perhaps "4000" may not seem like much to the likes of George "What? Me Worry?" Bush and Dick "Americans think the war is a mistake? So?" Cheney, every single one of those more than 4000 deaths was absolutely devastating to the victims, their families, their friends, and their colleagues.

Of course, Bush and Cheney may feel they just have their eyes on the bigger picture -

In 2002, Halliburton's earnings before taxes number was a loss of $228 million;

In 2007, that number was a positive $3.4 billion. (source: Morningstar)


What's 4000 lives weighed against billions of dollars?


On a related note, I wasn't going to do a "Sunday Morning Crappie Award" post this week, but Arizona's junior U.S. Senator, Jon Kyl, has earned at least an honorary award for his blithely shameless support of the president and his policies while questioning Sen. Barack Obama's 'seriousness' and 'wisdom.'

Somebody should clue Kyl in - there hasn't been any wisdom in the White House since January 2001.

And for that blatant double standard - criticizing the qualifications of a Democratic candidate for president while ignoring the fact that the President he so ardently supports is perhaps the most unqualified man to ever sit in the Oval Office, and one that is unqualified for the very reasons that he cites in criticism of the Democratic candidate - Jon Kyl wins an honorary award of this week's Sunday Morning Crappie.*

* - the award is an honorary one because this isn't really a flip-flop by Kyl. He's been Bush's lapdog for years.