SOLDIER ON. Atrios refers to six-month periods as "Friedman Units," referring to the repeated requests to just wait another six months for things to turn around in Iraq. Unfortunately, the number of American service men and women killed in Iraq during the last six months, November October 1 [corrected], 2006 through March 31, 2007, was the highest in any six-month stretch of the entire war: 532. (The six-month period ending January 31, 2005, is next closest, with 526.) The past three months are also the only three consecutive months with 80 or more fatalities.
The war is getting worse, not better. The president, of course, probably has no idea about such statistics; if he doesn�t read newspapers, surely he can�t be bothered with empirics. He goes with his gut, enabling him to blithely demonstrate the same �resolve� that led to all the problems in the first place. He soldiers on.
In the past half year, another 532 Americans fell from the ranks of those able to soldier on in the literal sense -- that is, with a helmet and rifle in hand. Bush, meanwhile, will be soldiering on to vacation (yet again) tomorrow.
--Tom Schaller
