Left I on the News

You don't have to imagine, because tomorrow is the fourth anniversary ("blogiversary") of the first post at Left I on the News, which means that today marks four full years of posting. That very first post on August 2, 2003 touched on a theme that would recur frequently - the undercounting of fatalities in Iraq (trying to avoid counting those who didn't die "in combat," counting only those who died "since President Bush declared major fighting over on May 1," and of course not counting Iraqis at all).

At the time of that first post, 251 American soldiers had died in Iraq, and some unknown number of Iraqis. Today the number stands at 3657, with another 293 from "coalition" countries, hundreds of more contractors, and an estimated one million Iraqis. The call of Left I on the News remains the same - Out Now! Not partially out sometime in the future. All out. Now.

By way of marking this four-year milestone, I've prepared a short video reviewing those years. The video concentrates on the major event of those four years, the U.S. war against Iraq. It touches on a few other things (Cuba, Katrina, Israel/Lebanon/Palestine), but skips many other of the subjects the blog has covered over the years - terrorism, imperialism, socialism, unemployment and the economy in general, Cuba, Venezuela, and even the Tour de France. For those, you'll need to review the archives (and feel free to do so the next time you have a free day or three).

On to the future! While you're waiting, enjoy (as much as you can "enjoy" hearing about death and destruction) this brief review of the past: