Velma Berger – 8/13/06

This page was last updated on August 13, 2006.

Stop wasting U.S. lives in Iraq; Velma Berger; Beaver County Times; August 13, 2006.

This is the latest in a series of at least 13 Bush and Iraqi-bashing letters written by Ms. Berger dating back more than a year. In one letter, Ms. Berger told us she was proud of John Murtha.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“On Thursday, I read an article titled ‘Things get ugly for Americans’.

“It concerned a ground attack to secure Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. How many times do we have to fight for control of Baghdad?”

[RWC] I searched for Ms. Berger’s alleged article but didn’t find it on the web. Therefore, I don’t know if she correctly represented the article’s content.

In any case, Ms. Berger misrepresents the situation. There was no “ground attack” to secure Baghdad. U.S. troops were redeployed to Baghdad from elsewhere in Iraq where they were no longer needed in an attempt to help Iraqi police and troops bring security to the capital. While there is too much violence in parts of Baghdad, Ms. Berger wants us to believe Baghdad is under the control of the enemy and must be retaken. That’s not anywhere near the truth.

“We saw pictures and read of how promising it looked after the local elections. Well, there has been nothing but bad news coming out of Baghdad.”

[RWC] While I don’t know if the trend will last, U.S. deaths have been dropping since April. Is that not good news?

“U.S. Rep. John Murtha’s statement that this war is becoming a civil war seems to be true.”

[RWC] This is at least the third time Ms. Berger has tried to represent what’s going on in Iraq as a civil war.

“In the Vietnam War, our troops took the same areas again and again. This is happening in Iraq. The people of Iraq want us out.”

[RWC] Ah, the “Iraq = Vietnam” talking point again. This is at least the second time Ms. Berger has invoked Vietnam.

Since Ms. Berger likes the Vietnam comparison and likes to count deaths, consider this. While there have been close to 2,600 deaths in Iraq in about 3.5 years, there were times when the death rate in Vietnam exceeded 2,000 per month.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trivializing the deaths of any soldiers. I’m only pointing out that if people want to throw comparisons around, they should get their facts and situations straight.

“We now have 2,595 service men and women killed.”

[RWC] As of August 11^th, the Pentagon reported 2,593 deaths in Iraq. 2,057 were killed in combat and the remainder was non-combat deaths.

With the obsession about deaths, does this mean Ms. Berger feels there’s some “acceptable” level?

“When will this war president and his colleagues admit we are wasting lives there and bring our troops home?”

[RWC] From what’s been reported, most of those men and women serving in Iraq don’t seem to believe “we are wasting lives there” and they seem to want to be allowed to finish their mission successfully. If these brave men and women don’t believe they are wasting their lives, why does Ms. Berger?