10,000 Monkeys and a Camera

Every one of Bush’s 4000+ dead American soldiers has a story — one that includes lives and loved ones who were left behind. We’re not allowed to see the bodies of the dead being brought home to rest because the Bush administration doesn’t want the American people to think about the thousands of brave and loyal soldiers who have been consumed in his incredibly stupid war. As the deaths mount, it’s hard to keep up with the individual casualties and their stories, but here is one of the latest to give his life in Bush’s War, U.S. Army Staff Sargent Christopher M. Hake, who “had been married for just under three years and his father said going on the second tour of duty in Iraq was an enormously difficult choice — made all the more painful by having to leave his baby son.”

When George W. Bush flew with great fanfare onto the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 and announced from the flight deck that the war in Iraq was all but over, I’m sure there were sighs of relief among America’s military families. I’m sure they believed that what he had said in feverishly promoting the Iraq invasion was true — that this would be a quick victory, with little loss of military life and that his team knew what they were doing in the occupation that would follow.

“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” declared Bush, in a nationally televised address, backed by a giant banner proclaiming “mission accomplished.”

With that statement, the president who lied the country and the U.S. Congress into the Iraq quagmire was again deceiving the American people, but this time the deception was that the toughest times in Iraq had past.

Of course, everyone now knows the truth.

We know that 96 percent of the Americans killed in Iraq have died since Bush boasted that our mission was accomplished and we know with sickening assurance that we have hit the hideous milestone of 4,000 of our own dead in the Bush administration’s war of choice.

[...]

These were our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, who because of the policies of the Bush administration will never hug their spouses or parents again and will never see their kids grow up.

And near or on number 4,000, we should remember the face of Christopher M. Hake, who died at only 26 years old.

The soldier’s MySpace page is still up and still holds pictures of him, his young wife and his beautiful baby boy. And his last post, from January 9, 2008, is a haunting reminder of an American full of hope, trying to do the right thing but who ultimately only wanted to return home to his family.

“I will be going on mid-tour leave in July. Kelli, Gage and I are going to spend that time in GA by ourselves,” wrote Hake in explaining to his family back home in Oklahoma. “This will be the first time in 8 years I haven’t gone to OK for vacation. But our priorities have changed drastically since we had our son.”

“But when I do come home for good in ‘09, we will see everyone. Continue to keep our little family in your prayers. We will keep all of you in ours.”