pre-news alert! 9/7/04 Dear all: Greetings from Shanghai! Today is 9/7/04, 4 days short of the 9/11 anniversary. Also coincidentally the American soldiers perished in Iraq so far is 996, 4 short of 1000! In April of 2004, there were 135 GI's died in Iraq. Since April, the average daily deaths has been a constant of about 2 GI's per day. At this rate, the 1000th American GI death in Iraq should be in the next couple of days. Because of the negative effect on American morale, since several months ago American government has asked the mainstream news media to stop reporting daily deaths, except on major events. However, the 1000th death is a major event, you will see the news in a few days. Therefore, I am providing you a "pre-news" on this coming event. The following is a discussion forum article I posted a few weeks ago for your reference: ============================= How many OPK's (other people's kids) are still dying in Iraq everyday? Mainstream news media had stopped reporting several months ago. But there are websites reporting it, for example: http://icasualties.org/oif/ For your info, the daily average death of OPK's is 2.67 American soldiers just this month (August 2004)! At this rate, the estimated date of the 1000th US casualty will be around 9/15/04! Sad for all! I don't believe Demos should use that occasion for propaganda purpose. Repubs certainly should mourn and shame themselves for such self inflicted wound. Its OPK anyhow, not my kid, some Repubs might think, for the glory of America their deaths are honourable and worthwhile. Also those dead and soon to be dead (if Bush stays, the next news "2000 US fallen!" will be around the end of next year) OPK's are mostly blacks, hispanics and poor whites... few of them would vote for Repubs and none of them could become presidential contenders 30 years later if they had not died in vain today! =================================== Also about the recent Chechen hostage news. First of all, I think it is a black dog biting white dog story and not our business. However, there are two facts to be observed about Chechnya: 1. The population of Chechnya was 1.2 million at the time when Soviet Union dissolved. Today, there are only 500K remaining. What happened to the other 700K? Some left Chechnya because of the war, but most of them were killed by Russians. 2. The American government was calling the Chechens "freedom fighters" only a few years ago. Now Bush needs Russian cooperation on his anti-terrorist crusade, therefore, American government now officially calls Chechens "terrorists". However, the American news media are still mostly calling them "militants" instead of "terrorists". 55 years ago my father was in Xinjiang province fighting "East Turkishstan Republic" (Dong-Tu). 3 years ago I remember very well one day on CCTV-9 a Chinese reporter was interviewing an American official who came to China to ask Chinese government cooperation on Bush's anti-terrorist war. The Chinese reporter asked the American official is Dong-tu terrorist? The American official bluntly told the Chinese reporter that Dong-tu is not terrorist. The Chinese reporter tried to argue with the American official saying Dong-tu had done such and such bad things. But the American was not moved, he said "that is a completely different matter!" Making the reporter very embarrased. Only two years ago Bush made the reluctant exchange with China to recognize Dong-tu as a terrorist organization. No more idealogy and back to reality. I had nothing to eat for more than a year now. Luckily I have a major breakthru invention in Internet application recently. I will let you know the details later after I get some legal protections. Best regards, Gary ================================= (next morning after I sent out the above letter) After a night sleep, I opened my computer and went to the web and found the big news everywhere (9/8/04 Beijing time; and 9/7/04 USA time): 1000 US fallen! U.S. Death Toll Tops 1,000! US Iraq Death Toll Hits 1,000! U.S. Dead In Iraq Passes 1,000! U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Pass 1,000! Bush still insists that invading Iraq made American safer! "...we were right to make America safer..." The white house spokesman said invading Iraq is "defending freedom": "We remember, honor and mourn the loss of all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending freedom,"