Tuesday, June 20, 2006

A tale of two headlines....Regarding Iraq

I find these two Yahoo news stories to be rather interesting--even contradictory. The first story is titled Frist: Surrender in Iraq 'not a solution;'

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist declared Tuesday that "surrendering is not a solution" in Iraq as Democrats embraced a proposal to start troop withdrawals this year, setting up an election-year showdown in the GOP-controlled Senate.

"We cannot retreat. We cannot surrender. We cannot go wobbly. The price is far too high," said Frist, R-Tenn., suggesting that Democrats want to do just that.

So Bill Frist says that we cannot retreat because the price we're paying for this war in Iraq is too high. And because the price for this war in Iraq is too high, we must stay in Iraq and complete the mission (whatever that mission is). We can't retreat from this war. In other words, we can't cut our losses and run.

So tell me Senator Frist--how high should the price go before we can cut our losses and run? How much is too much in terms of paying for this wasted war in Iraq? Because we've just added to the price. Here is a story titled Iraqi: Soldiers killed in 'barbaric way:'

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two American soldiers reported captured by insurgents last week. An Iraqi defense ministry official said the men were tortured and "killed in a barbaric way." Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" them.

The claim was made in a Web statement that could not be authenticated. The language in the statement suggested the men were beheaded.

U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.

The director of the Iraqi defense ministry's operation room, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the bodies showed signs of having been tortured. "With great regret, they were killed in a barbaric way," he said.

The claim of responsibility was made in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups led by al-Qaida in Iraq. The group posted an Internet statement Monday claiming it was holding the American soldiers captive.

The statement said the soldiers were "slaughtered," suggesting that al-Muhajer beheaded them. The Arabic word used in the statement, "nahr," is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.

Two more American soldiers' lives wasted in a useless, lost war. And here are the faces to go for this wasted, useless war:

In this undated photo released by the U.S. Army, Pfc. Thomas Tucker is shown. A group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Monday, June 19, 2006, it had kidnapped Tucker and Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, who were reported missing Friday while manning a checkpoint. Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, announced that the bodies of Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., had been discovered on a street in Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

U.S. Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca is shown in this undated family photograph. Menchaca is one of the two U.S. soldiers found dead after they became missing on Friday at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, a town in an area south of Baghdad. (Menchaca family/Handout/Reuters)

So tell me Senator Frist--how many more young American lives should we waste in this war? How much more blood and treasure are you willing to waste for your own short-sighted presidential ambitions? Because the cost to this country has gone too high.

It is time to bring these Americans home.

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