As of today, it has been six years since the United States invaded Iraq.  In his latest article, Laurence Vance reminds us of some uncomfortable facts that many Americans would rather just brush under the rug and be done with.  If only it were that simple.

Vance points out that the war should have been an issue in this last years presidential election, but really wasn’t.  And how “many Democrats only opposed the war because it was a Republican war… And now that Obama is president, no one from either party seems to mind that he wants to send 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.” 

Some statistics Vance noted in his article include: 

The financial cost of the war:  What was supposed to have been $50 billion turned into almost a trillion dollars, with 12 billion being spent fighting the war EACH MONTH last year.  And the cost of deploying one soldier to Iraq a year: $390,000.

The Iraqi death count:  The latest estimate was around 1 million, not counting the additional millions of Iraqis who are wounded, disabled, displaced, homeless, refugees, widows, or orphans.

Destruction to the lives of American soldiers & families:  “Many thousands of U.S. soldiers have been severely wounded. Hundreds of these have had limbs amputated. Untold numbers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.”

American soldier death count:  2,317 by the third year.  3,218 by the forth.  3,992 by the fifth.  And now up to 4,259.  And, Vance points out that “although the total number of American deaths per year is falling, there are two ways in which American deaths are rising: military suicides and the war Afghanistan.  There were more American soldiers who killed themselves in January of this year than died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military suicides are not only up for the fourth year in a row, they are at the highest level they have ever been.”  And that ”the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan is now up to 666.”

Vance concludes with a quote William Lloyd Garrison once said: “The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.”