Like Lambs to Slaughter

Our brave young men are dying in the swamps of Southeast Asia. Which of them might have written a poem? Which of them might have cured cancer? Which of them might have played in a World Series or given us the gift of laughter from the stage or helped build a bridge or a university? Which of them would have taught a child to read? It is our responsibility to let these men live.... It is indecent if they die because of the empty vanity of their country.
--Robert F. Kennedy, on Vietnam

Yesterday brought news of the sixth helicopter downed in three weeks ("Copter Crash Suggest Shift in Iraqi Tactics" NYT, 1/8/07). Here we go again: the headlines call it a crash, when clearly the aircraft was blown out of the sky. A crash implies technical difficulties, but a shoot down implies rockets, or something similar.

"An Iraqi farmer who lives about one-half mile from the crash site said he heard a missile fired moments before the crash." A shepherd said, “I looked at the sky and saw this big helicopter with double rotors and it was hit in its tail and burning.” He and his flock wisely decided to move on, at that point. A U.S. military statement gave no reason for the crash.

Facts are hard to get at, except seven more fine young Americans are inexplicably dead in a useless war. When will the Congress stop this madness?

U.S. military personnel have become sacrificial lambs, and you can figure out on what alter they are perishing.