Washington Affairs

September 2003


Combat Deaths -- 138; Occupation Deaths: 139
The occupation of Iraq has now cost more American lives than its conquest. On August 26, 2003, Spc. Darryl Dent, 21, of the National Guard's 547th Transportation Company, became the 139th US warrior to die since President Bush announced the end of "major combat operations." American dead during those operations numbered 138. The fact that the occupation was going to be harder than the conquest was foreseeable and foreseen -- just not by the White House, whose policy is adrift. Click here to read more.

The Shuttle Must Go -- NASA Report
"Because of the risks inherent in the original design of the Space Shuttle, because that design was based in many aspects on now-obsolete technologies, and because the Shuttle is now an aging system but still developmental in character, it is in the nation's interest to replace the Shuttle as soon as possible as the primary means for transporting humans to and from Earth orbit." Pages 210-11 of the Report by NASA's Columbia Accident Review Board says it best in words the American media and political system will ignore. Click here for more.

GOP Suspicious of Patriot Act
Poor John Ashcroft, America's Attorney-General. Here is the man who must change the laws of the federal government to fight the terrorists under every bed, and he is meeting resistance from civil rights whiners. Not only is a fuss coming from the usual Comsymp Democrats, pinko liberals and other citizens of dubious patriotism, but it is also appearing inside the Republican Party. Perhaps the Attorney-General should consider a Night of Long Knives to get rid of people like Idaho's Congressman C.L. "Butch" Otter. Click here to read on.