Ted Voth: Iraqis suffering as we are, hundreds of times over

Ted Voth  —  6/06/2008 5:27 am

Dear Editor:

I was very impressed, very saddened over Memorial Day weekend, driving by the Memorial Mile, the tombstones along Atwood Drive commemorating all the troops we've lost in our Mideast wars.

I was saddened even more to remember that for every U.S. citizen killed in Iraq, at least 160 Iraqis have died -- some would say more than 300 Iraqis.

That's between 640,000 and 1.2 million Iraqis.

And of course most of our casualties are young men. The Iraqi casualties are men and women, old and young, adults and children.

Imagine tombstones for all of those Iraqi men, women and children; they'd probably fill Olbrich Park, nearly to Lake Monona.

And then consider how many of our troops are wounded and maimed, physically and psychologically, for every one of our troops killed; and then multiply that by 160 or 300. That's how many Iraqis, men, women and children are psychologically or physically maimed or wounded.

And it just gets worse; think of all the families and friends grieving our dead troops. Yes, multiply those numbers by 160 or 300.

So much for the notion that we invaded Iraq for the benefit of the Iraqis.

The Iraqis must really be grateful for our presence now, don't you think?

Ted Voth

Madison

Ted Voth  —  6/06/2008 5:27 am