Colin Powell endorses Obama, not the bigger story of the interview!

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama this morning on Meet the Press. I could almost forgive him for helping to sell us Iraq just for that. Yet, the statement that he made about Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan during his endorsement was much more poignant for me.

"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards - Purple Heart, Bronze Star - showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life."

Awesome quote General. Here's a bit more information about the young soldier he was speaking of:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/more-on-the-soldier-kareem-r-khan/#comment-495458

http://blog.nj.com/njwardead/2007/08/army_spc_kareem_r_khan_august.html

We Did It! 4,000!

4,000 dead in Iraq! Congratulations everyone! I wonder who'll do the acceptance speech? Maybe we'll get resounding....so? If this, combined with the 5 year anniversary, can't push the war back to the front of news broadcasts and front pages, then I'm officially disgusted.

Have we forgotten there's a war?

Folks we are one week away from being involved in the war in Iraq for five years. Five years? A war that no one (save for some cabal in D.C.) honestly knows why we even went.

If anyone actually remembers, "Mission Accomplished" was May 1, 2003. The United States was militarily involved in World War II for 1,347 days, we reached that mark on November 26, 2006. The United States Civil War lasted for 1,458 days, we passed that almost a year ago. Currently, we stand at 1,832 days since the invasion of Iraq. United States Military fatalities today stand at 3,987 (13 are unconfirmed by the Department of Defense), UK fatalities stand at 175, and the other members of the Coalition of the Willing have incurred 133 fatalities for a total of 4,295 fatalities. In addition, the United States has incurred 28,838 wounded for a grand total of 32,825 United States casualties.

Meanwhile, we have an election going on where the Republican candidate is proposing staying in Iraq for 100 years if necessary and talking, nay SINGING, about bombing Iran. Now fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. In the meantime, the only Presidential candidate who did not vote for this foolish waste of life is too busy fighting off the mudslinging of a fellow Democrat to campaign against another term of the Republican chickenhawks. We need to open our eyes. Look at the numbers compared to other wars. Sure, the casualty counts are much lower than other wars, but make the comparison of our level of involvement and advances in body armor and medical care. When those factors are taken into comparison, this is easily the most costly war we've ever been involved in.

Yesterday, the Pew Research Center has released the results of a study which states that only 28% of American Adults correctly stated that approximately 4,000 U.S. troops have died in the war, down from 54% in August of 2007. The study ties directly to the declining media coverage of the war since last summer:

As news coverage of the war has diminished, so too has public interest in news about Iraq. According to Pew's News Interest Index survey, Iraq was the public's most closely followed news story in all but five weeks during the first half of 2007; however, it was a much less dominant story between July 2007 and February 2008. Notably, the Iraq war has not been the public's top weekly story since mid-October.

In case you can't zoom into the graph on the left enough, that's around 3% of the news devoted to war coverage. Sure, this clearly shows the "liberal bias" in the media. And Obama is lucky to be black, just like I'm lucky to be a single dad. Get a clue, just get the right clue and wake up America, don't get caught up in the Brittney's, Paris's and Lindsey's, remember what is important. Support the troops...by demanding that they come home and get out of harm's way.

On top of all this, the Pentagon today canceled the release of a study that found NO link existed between Saddam Hussein and al Qaida. Apparently, the report will be mailed to reporters...if they request it, and will not be posted on the Internet.