So recently I have been listening to politicians and TV analysts talk about the success of the "Surge in Iraq," which to be frank, is complete garbage. Here are a few things that should be alarming:

1. The number of Iraqis killed is on the rise....in January the number of Iraqis killed was 541 and all time low number in the war.. BUT            February totaled 731 dead Iraqis (636 were civilians most of whom were killed by Suicide bombers.) Link can be found here. Why were we the American people not told of this? Is it because it would undermine the "success" of the surge. We should be caring about the numbers of Iraqis killed, which now totals over 151,000 according to the World Health Organization. A link can be found here. In case you are wondering, that is 37.75x the number of dead US Soldiers. It is documented that violence is on the rise in Iraq. That is another sign that the surge is failing

2.One of the main goals of the surge was to stabilize the Iraqi Government, which even General Petraus has admitted has not happened. So, Iraq is making little government progress and has hit little to none of the "benchmarks" set up by the Bush Administration. We have forced Democracy on these people and as seen in the movie the campus Dems put on last semester about Iraq entitled "Iraq in Fragments" some people in Iraq feel as if it went from "one Saddam to 100 Saddams." So we blow them up, tell them how great democracy is, then let them flounder, and now realize maybe it wasn't the best idea..oops.

Now let me be sure to explain that I am against the war, but NOT against the troops. I support the troops 100% and feel the best way to support them is to bring them home alive and well. We need to bring America back to the great nation it once was and lose our image as a destructive nation to the world. What would our founding fathers do now? Would Adams, Jefferson, Washington or Franklin believe everything the government says, or would they stand up and find out information for themselves. Remember this adage: believe none of what you hear and only half of what your see. I am not advocating that the government is a giant conspiracy machine, all I am saying is take a stance for yourself, find things out and don't always believe everything you are told.

And one more thing, 97% of all US Soldier deaths have occurred after May 1, 2003, when our President George W. Bush gave the "Mission Accomplished" speech off the Coast of San Diego (here). That is the saddest stat of all, I guess we are dying in a war that is already over?

Let us all regain our American spirit, stand up to the government and say no more, if not, see you all in Iraq in a few years when we have a draft. This should not be a partisan issue, we are dealing with people's lives, this is not a game, let us unite as Americans and work together for peace and the safety of our troops.