This has to be one of the greatest ideas I’ve ever seen: Sign tallying military deaths upsets Army. Especially since said sign is right outside an Army recruiting office.
“The sacrifices our troops and their families are making are an important part of Minnesotans’ lives right now,” said Kelley, one of several Democrats seeking to unseat Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty next year. “If this draws attention to that, it’s all to the good as far as I’m concerned.”
As of Friday, the sign reported 2,177 troops had been killed and 16,155 injured, after 1,017 days in Iraq.
It really confused me when I started to read the article, though…
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Scott Cameron never imagined his modest memorial to American troops in Iraq would transform a quiet street here into the latest front of the nation’s tense debate about the war in Iraq.
I was initially thinking, “Hell yeah, Scott!” but then… “Wait… Minnesota?” then, “Vietnam veteran? Oh… guess it’s someone else.”
(I went to high school with someone named Scott Cameron. This would be very uncharacteristic for him, I think.)
Still a cool thing to do, though.
That reminds me of a story that a U.S. air force officer told me last weekend, about an air force base in Germany (forgot where exactly), outside of which is posted a sign tallying military deaths. Not in Iraq, but by drunk driving. And not cumulative, but the monthly total. Apparently if the base went a full month without someone getting killed, everyone got an extra day of leave.
Comment by Logan — January 4, 2006 @ 11:02 am