Oh, I don't think we've mentioned this in the last 24 hours

Bushy, Rummy, Condi, Wolfy...fuckers.

From Scripps Howard via Kos.

Sad to the depths of his 4-year-old soul, Jack Shanaberger knew what he didn't want to be when he grows up: a father.

"I don't want to be a daddy because daddies die," the child solemnly told his mother after his father, Staff Sgt. Wentz "Baron" Shanaberger, a military policeman from Fort Pierce, Fla., was killed March 23 in an ambush in Iraq.

Not if your Daddy is the son of a famous Republican of course.


Surrounded by family members, Corey Shanaberger holds her daughter Grace, 3, during her husband's funeral. Sgt. First Class Wentz "Baron" Shanaberger's was killed in Iraq in an ambush, leaving behind his wife and five children. (SHNS photo by Brendan Fitterer / St. Petersburg Times)

But, from Defense Department casualty reports, obituaries and accounts in hometown newspapers, and family interviews, Scripps Howard News Service has identified nearly 900 U.S. children who have lost a parent in the war...

Although comparably specific historical data is not available for other U.S. wars, military experts said the proportionally higher number of American children left bereaved by the Iraq war is unprecedented.

"This is a new state of affairs we have to confront," said Charles Moskos, a leading military sociologist and Northwestern University professor.

Overall, Americans in uniform today are far more likely to be married and have children than in the military of the past, Moskos and others said. And the reliance in Iraq on reserve forces _ who tend to be older and even more settled than active-duty soldiers _ also means more offspring at home.

Well, fortunately, we have Bobo's World repopulating at a prodigious rate.

Perhaps most heartbreaking are the more than 40 troops who died without ever seeing their children. At least 34 wives were pregnant _ four with twins _ when their husbands died, and another15 had babies while their spouses were deployed. While some of the latter were able to return home on paternity leave, most died before they could.

Among those who never once held their babies was Army 1st Lt. Doyle Hufstedler, 25, of Abilene, Texas, who was killed in March when a roadside bomb hit his armored personnel carrier near Habbaniyah. In his uniform pocket, Hufstedler carried a sonogram picture of his unborn daughter, the only image he would ever have of Grace Ashley, who arrived six weeks after his death.

Leslie Hufstedler's husband Doyle died in April, one month before his daughter Gracy was born. Here Leslie and 5-month-old Gracy share a moment at Leslie's parents home in Charlotte, N.C. (SHNS photo by Layne Bailey / Charlotte Observer)

Thank god for the Reynolds, the Cornerites, the Sullivans telling us that the death of these folks is making Iraq a better place, no matter what objective reality would say. So if you clap LOUDER not only will Tinkerbell live, but Iraq will be a land of peace, tranquility and quality capitalist markets, cue the future ---

"Hey, I'm Habib W. Bush Al-Daquiri, you Iraqis may recognize me from the popular television show 'Desperate Fatwahs'. Whenever I'm in the Green Zone I help myself to a tasty Maid Rite Pork Tenderloin, Mohammad never forsaw such tasty tasty uncleanliness"

Now we depart the land of "Ramadan Miracles" and return to reality:

The pregnant wife of 1st Lt. Doyle M. Hufstedler III, Leslie Hufstedler, second from left, is consoled by family during a graveside ceremony in Abilene, Texas, on April 9, 2004. (SHNS photo by Josie Liming/ Abilene Reporter-News)

Now, the article does point out that these victims of Bush's War are still, in their grief, supportive of it.

But, that is not the point. Rationalizing the death of a loved one is not normally accompanied immediately by, "boy was that a waste!".

Except, of course, in the long run it will be. Children without fathers, some without mothers.

And for the 900 american children without parents, there are thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children who have suffered such a loss, not due to Saddam Hussein, but due to George W. Bush. On top of that there are thousands of children -- CHILDREN -- who have died in Iraq because of George W. Bush, and parents without them.

Freedom is on the march, in jackboots!

Yes, merry fucking christmas.