There are an estimated 7798 Iraqi civilians dead as of today, with roughly 20,000 wounded.

posted by jeremy on April 08, 2004

There have been 646 American soldiers thrashed so far with around 3466 casualties. ThatÌs a lot of once talking laughing shitting breathing beings reduced to but dead meat, fucking compost. I hope the slight gains in the stock index are worth it.

Sunshine & coffee... & a copy of today's Oregonian telling me there seems to be a semi-popular Shiite insurgency spreading across Iraq, with the cleric Moktada Al-Sadr as its catalyst÷ Though our valiant defense secretary Donnie Rumsfeld says that this current round of fighting in Iraq is the work of "÷thugs, gangs and terrorists." & that "We're facing a test of will and we will meet that test." Wait... We? That fucking cunt won't ever come within a hundred miles of a battlefield.

I will honestly & actually bet my rosy red cock on that.

But anyway, they are going to keep 25,000 troops in Iraq, despite their promised rotation out of the war zone, in order to "÷systematically address the situations we are facing." Pretty fancy language for describing ongoing mass murder.

& I'm wondering, how many Americans & Iraqis alike would love a chance to kick Rumsfeld in the face or maybe just torture him until he dies vomiting blood?

Spring has summoned flowers & leaves, dispelled depression, chased the rain back to hell & days like this, I can almost forget that my homeland is Queen Bitch of the Universe, currently waging at least two imperialistic wars, if not arguably many more, thru however different subtle means÷ But I'm not forgetting, at least not today.

12 DEAD IN ATTACK, screams the headlines & all I can think, my taxes are paying for this fucking evil shit! Though my heart & mind, the hearts & minds of everyone I know, cry against this idiot atrocity. Only the simplest & dimmest Americans believe in this war÷ Though many wolves support it for their own financial & political gain. It's been made clear; the war was started with lies & lies & lies & the bullshit keeps coming. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. (Though I suspect some might mysteriously appear before the upcoming elections.) & currently, the information concerning Al Qaedas ties to 9/11 & what the administration knew, exactly, before the attacks, is locked up & won't be forthcoming anytime soon.

More & more people I know are coming to think that the administration knew a great deal about what was going to happen & maybe, just maybe, realized that something so devastating would be quite a gateway to incredible control over this nation. Cue temptation, usher in silence, let things happen & plant fear, reap power.

This plausibility is a distinct possibility.

I continue drinking my coffee, considering beer÷ A bumblebee lands on my arm as I roll a cigarette & as I reach for my lighter my eyes pick out this sentence in the article spread out before me, "÷an estimated 40 people were killed as they gathered for afternoon prayers." American bombs, I think, the legacy we weave, setting the tone of history tomes three centuries on. We are the continuation of Rome, seeking hegemony & if not hegemony, then at least a rough control. We are ruled by lycanthropes, wolves clad in thin rubber skins, who hunger after oil & money, shredding anything that stands in their way. They weave vast mythologies for us, entire universes of lies. They gibber bullshit at us thru television screens & each word cost hundreds of lives & we all know this & yet still they rule÷ They are 4-year emperors, ugly demi-gods, spreading their rot÷ It infects us all.

Following 9/11, the goodwill of the entire planet was with us. This exact point in our dubious history could have been a cusp in the evolution of our nation; A time of introspection & change. With all of our power & wealth we could have been ultimately benevolent. We could have helped millions or billions of humans somehow escape the ferocious cycles of poverty that permeate our global society. We could have changed the playing board that spawns terrorism; we could have done something different than what we did. We could have spent the 500 billion dollars that this war is costing us on something else, something more useful, something more beautiful. Education, food, infrastructure maintenance for developing nations, no strings attached. We could have helped create self-sufficient communities the world over.

We could have waged peace instead of war.

But that is not what we are. It never has been, probably never will be. Indeed, 9/11 was a cusp for our nation but an ugly one. We took all of that goodwill, all of the hope that the world had for us & thru some hideous alchemy, changed it back to disgust & hate & fear.

Even on a day as beautiful as this one, I know that a mother, a sister, a wife lays somewhere in the dust of Iraq, screaming out the names of her sons or daughters or husband, again & again... & peachfuzz soldiers from Detroit or Portland or Tampa look on with young or horrified or indifferent eyes, permanently psychically mutilated, coerced murderers÷ & the deal is sealed.

Every empire begets its own demise.

Check out these websites for an avalanche of horrendous info: antiwar.com, iraqbodycount.net, costofwar.com... & remember, you're Americans... Have fun.

It's what Americans do.