Planning, A Republican Problem

The Deciders’ loss of focus in Afghanistan, and his complete lack of a plan for Iraq, leaves his party with yet another planning problem

Memorial honoring fallen soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan runs out of room

Congress already has run out of space on a memorial created last year to honor all of the U.S. service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a grim sign of the times, the “Wall of the Fallen,” set up by House Republican leaders in June, is almost full. The mounting death toll from Iraq has forced U.S. House staffers to study how to reconfigure the display in the lobby of the Rayburn Building – the largest office building for members of Congress – to squeeze in more names.

According to the Defense Department, 3,736 U.S. service members died in the two wars by the end of April. New names are added to the display every few months, but none have been added since November. The last name listed is Lance Cpl. Luke Holler, 21-year-old Marine reservist from Bulverde, Texas, killed by an explosive device on Nov. 2.

In the current format, there is space for about 130 more names, but 506 Americans have died since mid-November. In April, 104 Americans were killed in the war’s sixth-deadliest month.

Maybe they could use the wall they’re building in Baghdad for the rest of the names, make it big enough and they might even be able to fit the names of the 60 to 100 thousand Iraqi civilians who have also died as a result of the smirker-in-chiefs’ little adventure.