This is very good news, but what about the billions we continue to spend over there with no discernible gain? Remember, lowered troop deaths doesn’t mean political progress, it just means there’s more security and fewer families devastated stateside.
From Reuters:
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion [...]

First this…

Obviously this is a really bad call on McCain’s part, especially since the Joint Chiefs have recently said, very explicitly, that members of the military should not be involved with these political campaigns…
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written an unusual open letter to all those in uniform, warning [...]

75-22. McCain didn’t vote, but stressed in recent weeks he was against it because it gave TOO much money to GIs.
From Craig Newmark’s blog:
Overwhelming GI Bill Victory in the Senate
World War II-Style GI Bill Passed as Part of War Supplemental
NEW YORK - Today, by an overwhelming 75-22 margin, the Senate passed the “Post-9/11 GI Bill” [...]

He apparently thinks diplomacy with Iran is the best option, and as the following suggests, he’s right in line with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
From Wash Post:
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, President Bush’s nominee to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, supports continued U.S. engagement with international and regional partners to find [...]

That’s the report from the Jerusalem media, but the administration is saying it’s false.
Who’s telling the truth?
The White House on Tuesday flatly denied an Army Radio report that claimed US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term. It said that while the military option had not been taken [...]

After a foreign policy that has resulted in more enemies instead of fewer, Bush actually has the gall to suggest that talking with some of the more high level foes is akin to appeasing Hitler.
Seriously?
“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have [...]

A former Republican turned Democrat who could put Virginia in play? Plus massive foreign policy credibility? Plus, like Obama, not a lot of time spent “inside the beltway”?
Marc Ambinder agrees, and notes the release of Webb’s book tomorrow:
“A Time To Fight: Reclaiming a Just And Fair America” is Webb’s most explicitly political to date, and [...]

That’s what the Pentagon is pondering, and although it’s nothing more than a gesture, making PTSD and other invisible battlefield scars worthy of this historic recognition would be something I’d welcome wholeheartedly.
From Wash Post:
WASHINGTON — Centuries before Iraq and Afghanistan, George Washington created the Purple Heart to honor troops wounded in combat.
But with an increasing [...]

The title says it all.
USA Today has the details:
More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.
This reliance on troops found medically “non-deployable” is another sign of stress placed on a military that has [...]

Some sobering news about how many of our young men and women are dying from wounds they suffered on the battlefield that nobody could see until it’s too late.
From Bloomberg:
The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. [...]

From the AP:
The killings of three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September.
One soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The other died of wounds sustained when he was attacked by small-arms fire, the [...]

Looks the the Iraqi Army has taken the city back from the militia, and that’s got Muqtada al-Sadr really angry. The only problem for Sadr? Iran seems to be backing Iraq’s moves, and Sadr has always been under the thumb of Iran.
From NY Times:
Mr. Sadr’s stock has recently fallen in Iranian eyes, the Iranian [...]

I saw this in the comments from my post today, Nearly 1 In 5 Soldiers Have PTSD:
I’m the Vet who contacted Carissa Piccard and Liz Dozier at CBS. Jonathan & I talked for over an hour today. He agrees that both Carissa & Liz totally rock. So do I - in spades. Jonathan is still [...]

From AP:
A recently completed survey showed 18.5% — or 300,000 people — said they have symptoms of depression or PTSD, the researchers said. Nineteen% — or 320,000 — suffered head injuries ranging from mild concussions to penetrating head wounds. [...]
The 500-page study is the first large-scale, private assessment of its kind — including a survey [...]

Between this news and the recent uptick in troop deaths, April is looking to be the bloodiest this year.
From NY Times:
BAGHDAD — As many as 53 people, including 12 children, died in a bombing Tuesday in Baquba, a city the Americans believed they had largely taken back from Sunni insurgents last summer.
A second bomb later [...]

Lest we forget…
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed an American soldier in Baghdad on Saturday, capping the bloodiest week for U.S. troops in Iraq this year. Clashes persisted in Shiite areas, even as the biggest Shiite militia sought to rein in its fighters.
The U.S. military said the American soldier was killed in a blast Saturday [...]

Whether he’s emboldened by his “victory” against Sadr’s militias or a host of other reasons we could only guess at, Nouri al-Maliki wants the U.S. to continue to draw down their troops.
I’ll repeat that…the prime minister of Iraq wants U.S. troops to continue to leave his country.
From AP:
Petraeus wants the U.S. to complete by the [...]

National Priorities Project has a great website that illustrates how your money is spent by the federal government on a state by state average. (note: this doesn’t mean state tax dollars are being spent, just the average breakdown for federal taxes paid by residents of a certain state.)
The biggest finding? For every $42 we spend [...]

An interesting moment from yesterday’s testimony with Biden, Petraeus and Crocker.

And while some on the left and the right have been trying to make hay out of this, the segment does have my wondering why, if our highest priority targets are in Afghanistan, that we’re not trying to destroy them.
I understand we think we [...]

They know the surge is making conditions safer. They know Iran is involved in Iraq.
And yet…
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 65% of Americans would like to see U.S. troops brought home from Iraq within a year. That’s the highest total recorded in the tracking poll which has been conducted regularly since August [...]