Military Losses Hit Town Hard (Cleveland suburb of 21,000 people)

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.10tv.com/global/story.asp?s=3678695&ClientType=Printable

Military Losses Hit Town Hard

The rash of violence in Iraq this week has taken an especially brutal toll on a Marine battalion based in this working-class town: Twenty members from the unit were killed over two days.

Grief and anger shook the town as families and residents anxiously awaited answers after learning that 14 Marine reservists were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb - one of the heaviest blows suffered by a single unit in the war. Two days earlier, six others from the battalion were killed while on sniper duty.

The sorrow in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb of 21,000 people, was painfully clear Wednesday among the line of customers sipping their morning coffee at the counter of a doughnut shop down the street from the battalion's headquarters. Nearly everyone at the counter said they knew someone who was connected to the battalion.

"You never know who it could be. It could be your best friend. It could be your husband - it could be anyone from here," Eleanor Matelski, 69, said as she angrily tore up a paper cup that had held her coffee.
"Tell Bush to get our soldiers out of there now before any more of our soldiers die. This is getting to be ridiculous," she said.

<</SNIP>>

[Az_lefty]

1. I didn't realize that all 20 were from the same Reserve Battalion

this is the kind of thing that is devastating to a community. Eleanor's comments are right on target, this is getting ridiculous.

[pfitz59]

2. Ohio installed Bush* for round 2!

Payback's a bitch!

[greendeerslayer]

4. The Sickening Irony Is...

Wasn't Kerry's "solution" to send more troops to Iraq? Wasn't he still voicing this position a few weeks ago?

[jmatthan]

5. And so was Paul Hackett just yesterday!!

eom

[brentspeak]

9. They have good reason for asking for more troops

In my opinion, if they're about 500,000+ more troops stationed on the borders and within Iraq, the safety of civilians is improved about 30-fold. Saturate the country with peacekeepers, seal the borders.

I don't want them to be OUR troops; they should be forces recruited from around the world. That's one of the reasons why Bush is so culpable for this Iraqi mess: he was told by some of the Pentagon's top generals that we needed at least 1/2 million troops to maintain stability in a post-invasion Iraq. Bush's response? Fire the messengers.

[samsingh]

15. if you send more troops while having the world on side

and also sending more troops, the insurgency will be contained.

bush and his morons have pissed everyone off in the world and then said things like 'bring em on', condoned torture, and who knows what else.

[greendeerslayer]

20. madness...

More troops means more targets. The insurgency will not be contained. It's the height of folly to suggest Iraq needs more troops (just as long as they are not ours.) Who do you think will buy that?

[Neverarepublican]

6. I don't think it is very nice of you

to say Payback's a bitch. Brookpark Ohio is in Cuyahoga County which
went to Kerry. This isn't about payback. This is about life and death.
Stop it with the payback crapola.
Besides, I think that liar son of bitch Bush stole Ohio.

[Marthe48]

19. Amen

That 'liar son of a bitch' is going rot in the lowest circle of hell, one created and reserved for him. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost their loved ones--all 1800 of them.

[brentspeak]

8. WTH??

"Payback"??? Twenty lives is something to gloat about??? Are you sure you're on the right website?

[shantipriya]

3. Unnecessary deaths

I hope the people of the community who voted for Shrub realise the untold misery and sadness created by this unnecessary "adventure" of the neocon goons.

[mikita]

7. I am very sad for these losses,

but isn't it sad too that only NOW they see that this is "getting to be ridiculous". Why does it always seem to take a shit-storm in your own face to wake up??

It is not JUST getting to be "ridiculous". It was murderous and insane and illegal and immoral long before it started.

Peace.

[blm]

10. I have a rightwing uncle who is a hugely popular citizen of Brookpark.

He's also my godfather.

If I get any feedback from him about this, I'll post it.

It doesn't seem that long ago when he worried himself sick about his son in Vietnam.

How soon they forget how they felt back then when they spend their days now listening to Rush Limbaugh.

[teryang]

11. 1822

the proverbial 2 x 4 is whacking the American Public upside the head. Do they get it yet?

[ConcernedCanuk]

14. "Do they get it yet?"

.
.
.

nope

and they won't . . .

Homeland "Security" will make sure of that. . .

(sigh)

[Joey Liberal]

12. Ohio gave us Bush - they asked for this n.t

[briang5000]

16. this is a cleveland suburb - strong Dem country

Northeast Ohio (Cleveland area - Cuyahoga County) is a very strong Democratic area and went strong for Kerry.

Brook Park is 10 right on Cleveland's doorstep.

This isn't payback and these people didn't vote for Bush.

[Kraklen]

13. Who'd they vote for?

[Doremus]

21. Overwhelmingly for Kerry. My husband & I did GOTV in two Brook Park

neighborhoods on election day. 90% of the people we talked to already had or were planning to vote for Kerry.

The repig head of the Cuyahoga County board of elections made sure to limit the number of voting machines in key precincts. There were some people here that stood in line until the early morning trying to vote.

If only a handful more per precinct had been allowed to vote, Chimp would be nothing but an awful memory.

So, NO, the citizens of Brook Park do not deserve the flippancy being dished up to them.

[delete_bush]

17. hey, it's just a game...

Bob Fekete, manager of a tire shop near the battalion, said the losses weighed heavily on him. He has done auto work for some of the headquarters' Marines.

Fekete, who served with the Marines during Vietnam, did not express the anger some of his neighbors did. "It's just one of those things. It's part of the game," he said.

[annabanana]

18. ...sounds like he can't face it....

or integrate his 'nam experience..