Find the cost of freedom�

[Colin]

Tops Floridian deaths in Iraq war

Scripps, number one local story?

Although the Palm Beach Post (Sunday, 1-4-04, page 1F) said the Iraq war was clearly the number one story of the year on the national and state scene. It said Floridas successful enticement of California biotech giant, The Scripps Research Institute, was the top local story. The Post said the $359 million inducement to build a new east coast location in western Palm Beach Gardens, was a transforming, transcending eventfor decades to come (Sunday, 1-4-04, page 1F).

Indeed it is. But is it story of the year for 2003?

Sure, the project is a major economic development for the Gardens, Palm Beach County and Florida. In the PGA News (Dec. 03), County Commissioner Karen Marcus estimates that the project will bring 500 high-wage, high-tech jobs in the first seven years and approximately 3,000 jobs within a 15-year period.

What about a little thing happening in the Middle East, a little thing called war? With some 142,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq, hundreds if not thousands, came from the Sunshine State. The troops risking their lives for Iraqi freedom and Middle Eastern oil affect the troops and families left at home. On Dec. 5 for example, approximately 175 soldiers of Floridas 631st Maintenance National Guard extended their active duty at Fort Stewart, Ga. for an additional six months. Floridas National Guard has approximately 3,400 Army and Air Force personnel serving on operations involved with Iraq.

It may be a long way from our shores, but the massive troop deployment there had the most profound emotional and economic impact on our locale. Worse, it cost young Floridian men their lives. According to CNN, 483 Americans have given their lives for this effort so far. Most of them are young men and women in their twenties and thirties.

Floridians can find the cost of this effort, buried in the ground. From CNNs casualty site, we find these Floridians, who gave, in Lincolns immortal words, their last full measure of devotion:

1. Lance Cpl. Andrew Julian Aviles, age 18, from Tampa. 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division. Killed on April 7, 2003, in central Iraq when an enemy artillery round struck his amphibious assault vehicle.

2. Lance Cpl. Brian Rory Buesing, age 20, from Cedar Key. 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. Killed in action near Nasiriya on March 23, 2003.

3. Lance Cpl. David K. Fribley, age 26, from Lee. 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. Killed in action near Nasiriya on March 23, 2003.

4. Cpl. Armando Ariel Gonzalez, age 25, from Hialeah. Wing Support Squadron 273, Wing Support Group 27, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Killed April 14, 2003 in an accident in southern Iraq.

5. Sgt. Keman L. Mitchell, age 24, from Hilliard. Company C, 4th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. Killed when he jumped into a 7-foot deep body of water on May 26, 2003, in Kirkuk, Iraq. When he failed to resurface, members of his squad retrieved him but attempts to resuscitate him failed.

6. Staff Sgt. Michael B. Quinn, age 37, from Tampa. 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Killed on guard duty at a checkpoint by unknown assailants who fired on him from a vehicle on May 27, 2003, in Fallujah, Iraq.

7. Cpl. John T. Rivero, age 23, from Tampa. C Company, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment. Killed April 17, 2003, in a Kuwait vehicle accident.

8. Spc. Robert D. Roberts, age 21, from Winter Park. 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division. Died of injuries he suffered when a tank collided with his vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 22, 2003.

9. Pfc. Charles M. Sims, age 18, from Miami. 549th Military Police Company, 3rd Military Police Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division. Drowned in a swimming pool in Baghdad, Iraq, on October 3, 2003.

10. Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, age 33, from Tampa. 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division. Smith, a combat engineer, was shot while manning a .50 caliber machine gun to fend off an attack by Iraqi soldiers near the Baghdad airport on April 4, 2003. He has been nominated for the Medal of Honor for his actions.

11. Spc. Jeffrey M. Wershow, age 22, from Gainesville. 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, Florida National Guard. Shot and killed while conducting military operations on July 6, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq.

12. Spc. Robert A. Wise, age 21, from Tallahassee. 3rd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, 53rd Infantry Brigade, Army National Guard. Killed when an improvised explosive device exploded near his mounted patrol in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 12, 2003.

As Lincoln so eloquently said, these young men resolved, with the last full measure of their devotion, that this oppressed and strategic Middle Eastern country shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth (Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863).

Surely the horrific cost of this freedom is more important, even locally, than a biotech office and residential community?

[Daddy Dee]

Thanks for the post Colin. Interesting observation.

[cluless]

Colon -

$1.89

Start your own war somewhere else.

Edit

I think I've decided that I'm sorry for that last snotty remark (but I'm not completely sure).

I definitely didn't mean to diminish the lives of those individuals that died in the name of our country in the mid-east.

I just looked at this thread as "flame bait".