Counter-questions to comments

To the editor:

Andy Tully, Michelle Malkin, David Limbaugh and some Speak Out comments stumble all over themselves with poor logic, fallacious arguments and idiot stubbornness in defense of Bush administration policies in Iraq.

I have some counter-questions: War death numbers have been counted since Roman times at least. The difference from the experience of World War II and the inherent and very apparent 2,000-dead landmark began in the Vietnam era. The body count has greater -- and, I would argue, better -- transparency and immediacy due to the rise of information technology. Of course body counts were kept during WWII. They were simply not readily or freely released to the American public.

It has taken lots more time to get 2,000 servicepeople (and lots more Iraqis) killed than it did to discover that there were no weapons of mass destruction, no 9-11 connection and no "liberation" of the Middle East. Also, Iraq has not been "taken," and the war grinds on.

No matter what sleight-of-hand arguments syndicated columnists use to distract us, the death toll, including civilians, continues to rise. I railed against the first death and today's.

Were there WMDs or al-Qaida connections? Did Cindy Sheehan's son die in Iraq or not? Did Scooter Libby intentionally, and on whose orders, reveal the identity of a CIA operative or not? Were the American people lied to or not?

ROB DILLON, Cape Girardeau