Meanwhile....

As you may or may not know, the President and his posse, the entourage surrounding Air Force One is gallivanting about the Middle East in his Ten Gallon Hat, at great taxpayer expense. Meanwhile, things are glum:

Nine American soldiers were killed in the first two days of a new offensive to root out al Qaeda in Iraq fighters holed up in districts north of the capital, the U.S. military reported Wednesday.

The toll marked some of the deadliest days for U.S. forces in Iraq since the fall. For all of December, 23 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.

Nine less voters for candidates to be concerned about this fall. And there are more:

A booby-trapped home exploded Wednesday, killing six American soldiers and injuring four others. The U.S. military also reported that three service members were killed by small-arms fire the day before. The two-day toll makes the latest effort to flush out the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq the deadliest military operation in months.

Of course, we have less to gripe about because the largest number of deaths caused by Iraq Democracy Spreading Experiment is substantially larger than the number of people killed on Nine Eleven:

About 151,000 Iraqis died from violence in the three years after the United States invaded, concludes the best effort yet to count deaths - one that still may not settle the fierce debate over the war's true toll on civilians and others.

I'm sure that's a conservative estimate.

And, just for fun, we do allow Blackwater to do it's business in Iraq too, some of whom are funded by US Taxpayer dollars (well that is after China calls in all our markers):

Suddenly, on that May day in 2005, the copter dropped CS gas, a riot-control substance the American military in Iraq can use only under the strictest conditions and with the approval of top military commanders. An armored vehicle on the ground also released the gas, temporarily blinding drivers, passers-by and at least 10 American soldiers operating the checkpoint.

“This was decidedly uncool and very, very dangerous,” Capt. Kincy Clark of the Army, the senior officer at the scene, wrote later that day. “It’s not a good thing to cause soldiers who are standing guard against car bombs, snipers and suicide bombers to cover their faces, choke, cough and otherwise degrade our awareness.”

Both the helicopter and the vehicle involved in the incident at the Assassins’ Gate checkpoint were not from the United States military, but were part of a convoy operated by Blackwater Worldwide, the private security contractor that is under scrutiny for its role in a series of violent episodes in Iraq, including a September shooting in downtown Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.

Sure, that was a 2005 incident, but why is it coming out just now? Who's been held accountable for it?