Millions Like Stars In My Hands, Daggers In My Heart, Wage War

Iraq Conflict Has Killed A Million Iraqis: Survey

LONDON - More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain’s leading polling groups.

The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.

The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war, the researchers found.

The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September 2007, was 1.7 percent, giving a range of deaths of 946,258 to 1.12 million.
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Published on Thursday, January 31, 2008 by Reuters

Single Gun Theory, Like Stars In My Hands

And to follow up the grim post about PTSD and violence is an outstanding summary of the mental health crisis plaguing the Army. In Mental Health and the Rapidly Breaking Army, Mike Dunford describes of series of articles in the Washington Post about the rapid rise in suicide attempts/self-injuries and in particular, the sad case of US Army 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside:

In the note that she wrote before swallowing whatever pills she had around her, she said that she was "very disappointed in the Army". It's hard to find any reason for her not to be disappointed. The Army's treatment of her has been absolutely abysmal. Unfortunately, the same can be said for many other soldiers and veterans. Although the Army has been working to improve mental health care, the system is not where it needs to be, and faces no shortage of hurdles along the way.

Around me the grass was burning. I crouched down and waited. The sheet of fire retreated.

I will carve my own heart and serve myself to God

-Single Gun Theory, Angels Over Teheran