Well, let's see:

As of 8-29 4337 American deaths in Iraq.

Divided by 100, that's some 43 deaths per Senator. And not all of them voted for the war to begin with, including Kennedy, so average per Senator who voted for it would be higher.

Kennedy didn't know Kopechne would die. The Senators who voted for the war knew death would follow their vote. Death, I might remind you, while not in vain, clearly was needlessly incurred. There I go, projecting what historians will say about that fiasco.

But we're there now. Morally, we can't leave until some degree of stability has been realized. That appears to be more difficult than imagined.

This morning's report informs us that latest bombings (100 killed) were from a group composed of Al Quaida in Iraq and Sunni remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime.

What we did was uncover several hornet's nests representing a variety of interests in the Middle East, as well as a history there we should have known about, and probably did, but ignored at our peril.

That's only the war. How many deaths can be attributed to sins of omission by Senators who continually ignore industrial poisoning of the environment people live in and work in every day. Lip service, that seems to be the extent, so far.

Ask Messybear!

Intent? Kopechne or Iraqi casualties?