100,000 more Iraqi deaths than usual since US occupation

FINALLY, somebody managed to get in there and count this. I've been looking for this information for a year, but there was only partial information from the bodycount website.

source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8243-2004Oct29.html?nav=hcmodule

And G. Bush call himself "pro-life"? Only to get votes, I think.

To this, one of my good friends wrote:

All destruction of human life is evil. But for a comparison, it is estimated over 44 million lives have been lost through elective abortion.

I guess the question is what we doing about it?

Since our "leaders" are actively promoting death in the Middle East, some for profit, some just out of arrogance, that seems to me to be clearly wrong. And that is directly the President's responsibility. It's in his hands. Directly. He acts proud to present United States violence as his policy.

On the other hand, he doesn't have that much effect on the abortion issue, because the American people have more say than he does, through the court system, and through the fact that, legal or illegal, abortion is always an event that happens in private. In the big picture, abortion and suicide are both deaths that can mostly be prevented by addressing the conditions that surround the event (which has implications for dealing with both abortion and suicide-terrorism).

People tell me that all these [irresponsible, probably criminal] acts that this administration keeps pulling are justified because Bush signed the partial-birth abortion bill and supports faith-based initiatives. As far as I can tell, that bill never had much effect on abortions, and anyone who knows law knew that it would be useless, except as a statement, even before it was passed.

Maybe as a statement it might be another case of "going in the right direction." But I think it was more about campaigning to his "base." Bush is a great campaigner. I don't think he's working for the babies at all, and he's not effective at ANYTHING that requires subtlety, skill or appreciation of pluralism.

I'll say one thing. This has sure wakened me up to the fact that we can't be just leaving abortion to politicians and lawmakers, "other" people and laws. I used to do a lot of work with Girl Scouts, where I had direct influence on young people, on helping them match values and actions. Since then, the only thing I've done is give money to the people who put up pro-life signs and billboards. Not a very good record on that issue.

To John Kerry I say:

You haven't managed to give pro-life people a way to vote for you. Can't you find a way to say:

"Abortion has always been with us, but in our responsibility to protect the vulnerable, there are things that we will do. We have to respect the mother and the unborn.

"No law yet devised would be able to eliminate abortion, but we can cut it by ??% in eight years if we do _____."

Surely there's something you guys can come up with that can fit the bill. Just figure it out.

I have faith that you, as president, have the capacity to be one of our best presidents. I say this because of your past record, including the parts of your record that this campaign seems to make you want to disown.

Keep the faith! I'll keep working to get the vote out.

pax,
maggie hettinger