Good read...
Make no mistake: Terrorist attacks have hit home
As each day passes, more Americans deal with loss
December 31, 2005
On this last day of 2005, we have one request: To never, ever again hear something justified because "we" have not been attacked by terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001.
Last week, the topic was spying on Americans and the speaker was Vice President Dick Cheney. "It's not an accident that we haven't been hit in four years," he told reporters while traveling in Pakistan.
But the same notion comes up again and again to excuse other actions. When the speaker is hard-put to find something good to say about detaining suspects without trial, or torturing prisoners, or curtailing Americans' civil rights, there's always this: Terrorists haven't struck the U.S. in four years.
But of course they have.
Those improvised explosive devices may be going off in Fallujah and Baghdad and Ramadi. But they are ripping holes in America's heart just as surely as planes did that day in 2001.
Day by day this year, the death toll has risen: from Jan. 1, when Army Spc. Jeff LeBrun, 21, of Buffalo, N.Y., was killed by an IED in Baghdad, to Thursday, when the same fate befell a still-unidentified soldier in the same city.
Word speeds back to places like Elgin, Ore., Muskegon, Mich., and Bradon, Fla. Mothers and fathers weep. Parents try to comfort their children. Brothers, sisters and friends pore over the last photo, the last e-mail, the last memory.
In Oregon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski composes another short tribute and orders flags flown at half-staff. A former Marine, he rearranges his schedule to attend the funeral if he can. A new photo and biography appear on the "Oregon's Most Honorable" Web site, telling of decorations and hobbies and children left behind.
When the twin towers fell, it triggered weeks of funerals in concentric circles around lower Manhattan. Now, by contrast, the sounds of "Taps" echo across America; no state is spared.
In 2001, terrorists had to work hard to enter the United States, live here undetected and lay plans to hijack jet airliners. In 2005, America delivered its best men and women to them in Iraq, one and two and 10 at a time.
This fall, the number of confirmed military deaths in Iraq passed the 2,000 milestone. By Thursday, it had reached 2,178.
Will 2006 bring it close to 2,973 -- the number believed to have died in the ruins of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93?
We fervently hope not.
Whether or not it does, we are certain: Terrorists are hitting us where it hurts, at home.
http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051231/OPINION/512310306/1048
Deaths in 2002, according to the National Safety Council:
Falls from stairs = 1,598
Riding a motorcycle = 3,215
Choking on food = 2,940
Pedestrians = 6,091
Narcotics and Pyschodysleptics = 8,264
I guess it is not even safe to breath:
Gases and vapours, X46-X47 = 691