What words are left?

Webster's
Main Entry: quag·mire
Pronunciation: 'kwag-"mIr, 'kwäg-
Function: noun
1 : soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot
2 : a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position


Bill Day

I have seen the war in Iraq described as horrific, terrible and bloody. I've seen the press try to make out that there no justification for such high causalities. It's been called a quagmire since the dat after the shooting started and now, 3 days have the handover, Bill Day is still calling it a quagmire. But what are the nubmers compared to the wars of the last century?

We are in our 16th month in Iraq with 800 combat dead. The first number is based upon total US combat deaths then divided by the number of months the US was fighting to get the average death rate over a 16 month period. The second number is real deaths adjusted for population (Current, 1900-1999, 1860)

World War II - 150,846 / 378,623
World War I - 98,118 / 278,655
Korea - 18,082 / 33,813
Vietnam - 7,755 / 11,477
Gulf War - 2,320* / 2,691*
Iraq - 800 / 800

BONUS
US Civil War - 208,170 / 1,967,207

Quagmire?

(* - The Gulf War of 1991 lasted one month. This number is extrapolated from the 145 deaths from that month.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5335853/site/newsweek/site/newsweek/

Moore's Big Blockbuster

I have seen much about how Michael Moore’s lastest anti-American and anti-Bush movie is doing gangbusters.

Reuters

Box-office fever for Michael Moore's searing anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" climbed a bit higher on Monday

Independent

The box-office figures were a vindication for Mr Moore and his immediate backers, the Weinstein brothers of Miramax,

The Oregonian

the film raked in an eye-popping $23.9 million in its first three days

AFP

US filmmaker Michael Moore claimed a major political coup against US President George W. Bush as "Fahrenheit 9/11" scorched box office records and shook the US political scene.

Well just how well has F9/11 done? A quick check at over at Yahoo Movies shows that it ranks as the 10th top grossing film on its opening weekend... since April 7th of this year.

Shrek2 - $108.0 million
Harry Potter 3 - 93.6
The Day After Tomorrow - 85.8
Van Helsing - 51.7
Troy - 46.8
Dodgeball - 30.0
Kill Bill Vol.2 - 25.1
Mean Girls - 24.4
Riddick - 24.2
F9/11 - 23.9

I'm concerned that all this echo chambering talk about how F9/11 is this runnaway train of success is leading to thinking it's going to change minds. For what it is and the number of screens it was shown at F9/11 did well but it's no Titantic and all it's capable of doing is confirming the viewer's already held beliefs that either Bush/Rep/Conservatives are the most evil people on the planet or Moore is a lying selfagrandizing bastard. No one will be swayed but I wonder if the Dems might think they can coast to an easy win against Bush riding the F9/11 wave of success.

Richard Cohen over a the Washington Post sees the same potential problem.

I go on about Moore and Ellis because the stunning box-office success of "Fahrenheit 9/11" is not, as proclaimed, a sure sign that Bush is on his way out but is instead a warning to the Democrats to keep the loony left at a safe distance. Speaking just for myself, not only was I dismayed by how prosaic and boring the movie was -- nothing new and utterly predictable -- but I recoiled from Moore's methodology, if it can be called that. For a time, I hated his approach more than I opposed the cartoonishly portrayed Bush.

The vibe I am getting from the Dems is the same I got in Feb of '02 when a moonbat handed me an anti-Bush work of his and stated that, "We[anti-war crowd] are just about to win and stop this war.". He had talked himself into believing everyone was against the war, I wonder if the Dems are headed down the same road with Bush.