Two heartbreaking milestones came and passed as I returned home from Iraq and begin posting blog entries again. March 20th marks the completion of five years since our second war in Iraq was started in March 2003. On Sunday this 23rd of March, the U.S. military death toll in our current war in Iraq reached 4000.
There is a Latin phrase "ad infinitum" meaning basically - to go on forever.
Stupid pop culture, media-complex, distraction-from-reality story
I see the main stream pundits are still up to their old tricks more than ever while I was gone to Iraq. So, I am thinking, each day I should continue to jot down the stupidest news story that is foist upon us by the big-media-complex as a distraction from the reality that has become America. So here we go - welcome to today's "Stupid Pop Culture, Media-complex, Distraction-from-reality Story."
The nightly, 24-hour news nit-wits jam the sex lives of two New York Governors and one New Jersey Governor into our already crammed memories - that precious memory that unlike a computer, can not be cleared with a "Delete" key. While the war in Iraq languishes on; the dollar collapses; gas prices prevent us shlubs from having a night out; and, Washington continues to be run by lunatics, we have the sexual didos of east coast lunatics chronicled ad nauseam. Now there is some real God damned news!
Wisconsin military service person of the week
Marine Staff Sergeant Chad J. Simon, 32 of Monona died on August 4, 2005 while under hospice care in Madison, Wisconsin. His death was caused from wounds he received nine months earlier in an explosion during combat in Babil Province, Iraq, on November 8, 2004. Staff Sergeant Simon was with the Madison-based Company G, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve. Three of the other area soldiers - Lance Corporal Shane K. O'Donnell, 24, of De Forest; Lance Corporal Branden Ramey, 22, of Belvidere, Illinois; and, Corporal Robert Warns II, of Waukesha - died shortly after the attack. While in Iraq, the unit was stationed in Babil province, 30 miles south of Baghdad. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Simon is survived by his wife, Regina; 6-year-old son, Dylan; parents, Jerry Simon of Cuba City and Carol Parham of Bradenton, Florida.; and, a sister, Stacy Simon of Bradenton, Florida. Chad enlisted in the reserves a few months before he graduated from Madison's La Follette High School in 1990. Staff Sergeant Simon had earned the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal three times; the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal; and, for his November, 2004 wounds, the Purple Heart Medal. Simon's unit was called to duty in June 2004 and sent to Iraq in September 2004. Staff Sergeant Chad Simon was the 44th Wisconsin soldier to die in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
4,000 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
487 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
308 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
290 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
29,451 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,898 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
87 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
127 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
15 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; and, icasualties.org.
