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CNN Live Today
Fear an Old Factor in Presidential Politics; 'Daily Dose'
Aired September 09, 2004 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. military officials in Baghdad confirm Iraqi civilians were killed in the U.S. airstrike in Fallujah. The U.S. says the target was a suspected hideout used by -- quote -- "numerous foreign fighters." Iraq's health ministry said four children were among the 10 people who died in the attack.
To Los Angeles now, mock disaster drills will send about 20,000 people into downtown streets about an hour from now. Simultaneous evacuations will occur at city hall, police headquarters and several other buildings. Officials warn that motorists should expect traffic delays.
And in New York City, six firefighters were slightly injured while battling a blaze in a high-rise apartment building in Chinatown. The building was evacuated and the flames put out.
George W. Bush and John Kerry are back on the campaign trail this morning, and as usual, they're trying to stir up support in those all- important battleground states.
Judy Woodruff with me now for more from Washington.
Judy, good morning.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Daryn. Thanks very much.
Well, Bush and Kerry are spending almost all their times in political battlegrounds like Pennsylvania. President Bush is headed there today, where he is expected to talk about the economy. Aides say he also plans to expand on his convention speech, where he talked about creating what he called an ownership society.
Senator Kerry is in Iowa this morning, where he;s holding a discussion on health care issues in Des Moines. Later, he travels to New Orleans to address the National Baptist Convention. New CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup polls in four important battleground states show gains for President Bush, for the most part. The president now leads in two of the states. Senator John Kerry leads in one. And Pennsylvania is a virtual tie. Bush holds his biggest lead, 14 points, among likely voters in Missouri. In Ohio, Bush leads by 8 points among likely voters, but the race is much closer among the broader group of registered voters. In Washington State, Kerry has an eight-point lead among both likely and registered voters. And in Pennsylvania, the race is neck and neck, with Bush holding a one-point lead among likely voters. President Bush won Missouri and Ohio in 2000. But he lost Washington state and Pennsylvania to Al Gore. Well, Vietnam and Iraq continue to dominate the political headlines, but the economy still is apparently on the minds of many voters. This afternoon, we're going to look at how the issue will affect the election in just 54 days.
Plus, was he there or not? As the controversy over President Bush's National Guard service intensifies, we'll have the latest, when I go inside politics at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
For now, let's go back to Daryn in Atlanta.
KAGAN: All right, Judy, thank you for that.
WOODRUFF: Thank you.
KAGAN: More political news now. Democrats are spitting mad over the vice president's not-so-subtle suggestion that a vote for John Kerry to lead to another terrorist attack.
But as our senior political analyst Bill Schneider found, fear is actually an old factor in presidential politics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: A presidential race can be a choice between fear of the unknown and fear of the known. John Kerry, like all challengers, is running on fear of the known.
KERRY: This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to health care.
SCHNEIDER: The Republicans' answer, fear of the unknown.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again.
SCHNEIDER: Democrats were outraged and quick to respond.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think Cheney's scare tactics today crossed the line. This is un-American.
SCHNEIDER: But not unheard-of. Fear tactics usually work best against a challenger, someone largely unknown, like Barry Goldwater in 1964.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JOHNSON-HUMPHREY CAMPAIGN AD, 1964)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Jimmy Carter tried the same thing against an unknown and scary challenger in 1980, Ronald Reagan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, August 15, 1980)
JIMMY CARTER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This radical and irresponsible course would threaten our security and could put the whole world in peril.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: In 1984, the Reagan campaign turned the argument against the Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, REAGAN-BUSH CAMPAIGN AD, 1984)
ANNOUNCER: Isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Notice how fears had shifted, from Republican recklessness to Democratic weakness, a fear Republicans exploited again in 1988.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-QUAYLE CAMPAIGN AD, 1988)
ANNOUNCER: And now he wants to be our commander in chief. America can't afford that risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Scare tactics work if they're based on real concerns about a candidate, Goldwater as trigger happy, Dukakis as weak.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: There is some good news for former President Clinton. I'll tell you what that is, coming up next.
And what happened to him is actually important news for the rest of us. Keeping your heart healthy is ahead in your "Daily Dose" of health news.
And later, what goes up, must come down. Not the way it's supposed to, though. What is next for NASA? The details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Out of intensive care, former President Bill Clinton continues to recuperate from quadruple-bypass surgery. According to a posting on his Web site, Clinton is able to walk with assistance and sit up in a chair. He's expected to leave the hospital by the end of the week. Doctors say it will take two to three months for a full recovery.
And doctors say they got to President Clinton just in time. He had been actually having symptoms for several months, and blockages in some of his arteries well over 90 percent. Is there a lesson in there for the rest of us? Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us with that.
Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
There are so many lessons for the rest of us. First of all, the importance of diet and exercise, of keeping your cholesterol down, of keeping your body in good shape. That's one lesson.
A second lesson that President Clinton can teach, is not to just brush aside chest pain. If you're feeling chest pain, go to the doctor. A lot of people think, oh, it's not really that bad, I'll just wait. Waiting is often not a very good idea. And even not just chest pain, fatigue, those kinds of symptoms, extreme fatigue, having trouble getting up the stairs like you usually do, not good things to brush aside.
Let's take a look at two things that when you go to the doctor that they're going to check for. One is blood pressure, and this is something people should have consistently checked whether or not they are having symptoms. Normal would be considered less than 120/80. Higher would be -- high blood pressure would be considered greater than 140 over 90. Anything in between those two readings is now considered pre-hypertension, and might possibly be a reason for your doctor to put you on a special diet program or even on drugs.
Now, let's take a look at cholesterol levels. Cholesterol levels that would be considered desirable would be less than 200 milligrams for total cholesterol, but the really important number is what is called the LDL, or the bad cholesterol, and wanting to keep that below 129 milligrams, and even lower than that, in some cases even lower than 100 if you're at a particularly high risk for cholesterol. So those are the two standards that doctor are going to really be looking at to keep your heart in good health.
KAGAN: OK, one of the terms that we are hearing was angiogram, that the president received.
COHEN: Right, the president actually did an exclusive interview with "LARRY KING LIVE," when he was in the hospital, just before his surgery, and he mentioned that. So let's listen to what the president had so say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think if people have a family history there, and high cholesterol and high blood pressure, they ought to consider the angiogram, even if they don't have the symptoms I had, that there is some chance of damage there, but it's like one in a thousand. I really think it probably saved my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now an angiogram is when doctors thread a catheter up to your heart, and they inject a dye, so they get a road map of the vessels in your heart, and that's when they can see what's blocked and what's not, and that's really the gold standard. Now of course now everyone needs to rush out and have one of those just because they're feeling great. Your doctor can tell you whether or not you really need one.
KAGAN: All right, but awareness definitely raised across this country.
COHEN: That's right. I mea, you hear stories about people who just over the past five days have said, gee, I'm just not feeling great, I think I ought to go to the doctor, based on President Clinton's experience.
KAGAN: Great. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for that.
COHEN: Thanks.
KAGAN: To get your daily dose of health news online, you'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address is CNN.com/health.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: Still to come, a grim milestone in Iraq: more than a thousand U.S. military personnel are now dead. We'll put some names and faces to those numbers, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Earlier this week, American forces passed a grim milestone in Iraq. More than a thousand of them have died there. Who were these Americans? And how did they die?
CNN's correspondent Beth Nissen has some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the language of the military, they are the fallen warriors, the 1,000 U.S. troops who have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, more than 860 of them since May 1st of last year when major combat operations were declared at an end.
Combat continued in the streets and alleys of Baghdad, in the hot dust of Fallujah and Ramadi, in the cemetery of Najaf. Troops deaths peaked this spring, 50 in March, 134 in April the deadliest single month of the war, 81 in May.
How they died is not always clear in the Department of Defense releases or in the fog of war on the ground. At lest 80 troops are listed simply as killed in enemy or hostile action. As many as one in five died the way soldiers have in every modern war, shot in firefights, on patrol, by snipers.
Another 125 were killed by rocket-propelled grenades, mortars. Almost double that number have been killed by one of this war's greatest threats, IEDs, improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs. At least 237 U.S. troops have been killed by IEDs set along roads, thrown into vehicles, detonated on passing convoys.
Vehicles are dangerous places in Iraq even in the absence of enemy attack. At least 107 troops, just over ten percent of the war dead, were killed in motor vehicle accidents when their Humvees and Bradleys and trucks collided in dust storms, rolled over on Iraq's poor roads, went off road and tumbled into ravines and canals.
Helicopters, another vital means of transport and supply, are also a constant danger. Eighty-three U.S. troops have died when their helicopters were shot down or crashed, 17 on one day alone last November 15th when two Black Hawk helicopters collided over Mosul.
In this war, in any war, there are accidents, non-combat deaths. In Iraq, at least 30 U.S. troops have died in accidental shootings, often as they or their comrades cleaned their weapons. Some of these weapon discharges were not accidents.
The Pentagon has confirmed that at least 26 Operation Iraqi Freedom troops have committed suicide. Other deaths have been caused by the same kind of accidents that might befall a population of 137,000 anywhere.
At least 16 U.S. military personnel have drowned in Iraq, crossing or swimming in rivers and canals. Seven were electrocuted. Troops in Iraq have also died of illnesses that claim thousands of civilian lives each year. At least 13 have died of heart failure, others suffered strokes, died of acute leukemia, cancer.
Who were these 1,000 Americans in uniform? The great majority, more than 720 were in the Army, the 101st Airborne, 1st Armored Division, 1st Infantry Division.
Since April when the Marines replaced Army units in the explosive Al Anbar province, a growing number of the dead have been Marines. More than 240 have died in Iraq so far, 33 last month alone.
Every branch of the service has seen losses, the Navy, the Air Force, even the Coast Guard. Those fighting for the U.S. in Iraq and those who have died represent the American population in broad strokes.
African Americans accounted for an estimated 13 percent of the dead, Hispanics another 12 percent. Seventy percent of the war dead were Caucasian, white men. Only 22 of the military fatalities have been women, almost half of them killed when their convoys hit roadside bombs.
The common denominator for most of these casualties is youth. Just over half of those killed in Iraq have been age 25 or younger. The youngest were 18, 19 years old. At least 77 were teenagers, the oldest 51, 55, 59.
An unprecedented number of regular enlistees and reservists in the all voluntary military are older in their 30s and 40s and married. The Defense Department does not release information on families but, according to the Associated Press and reports in obituaries in local newspapers, more than 400 of the troops killed in Iraq were married, a third had children, most of them young. At least 389 children under the age of 12 have lost a father and five have lost a mother in Iraq. The numbers say so much and so little.
One thousand American lives lost, 1,000 individuals who had middle names that someone proudly chose for them, who had pictures taken on the first day of Kindergarten and at high school graduation, who had plans for the future, to be a police officer or a college student or a dad for the third time who wanted to serve their country and did at such great price.
Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)
KAGAN: Well, even the most meticulous plans can go awry. What's missing here? That would be the parachute. The capsule from the Genesis spacecraft was supposed to glide to Earth and by plucked out of the air by a helicopter over the Utah desert. We talked a lot about this yesterday. Well, instead it fell like a meteor. Scientists will now have to determine whether the three-year experiment is a total bust.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY DANTZLER, NASA SCIENTIST: Everything that Genesis collected is here on Earth. We always had a contingency plan that if something like this happened, that the curation scientists, essentially the people who look at these samples and decide where the science is within the collectors, they would have the job of putting these samples back together to the point of determining how much science can be gotten out.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: So at this point the samples, the solar samples, can they be used? Or do you have an answer on that?
DANTZLER: We can't say for sure right, but it does not look like a total loss, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Well, that would be a good bonus there. The capsule carries microscopic bits of silver dust that scientists still hope will provide clues about the origins of the universe.
Well, that's going to wrap it up for me, Daryn Kagan. I will see you right back here in the seat tomorrow morning. Wolf Blitzer taking over from Washington D.C.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 9, 2004 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. military officials in Baghdad confirm Iraqi civilians were killed in the U.S. airstrike in Fallujah. The U.S. says the target was a suspected hideout used by -- quote -- "numerous foreign fighters." Iraq's health ministry said four children were among the 10 people who died in the attack.
To Los Angeles now, mock disaster drills will send about 20,000 people into downtown streets about an hour from now. Simultaneous evacuations will occur at city hall, police headquarters and several other buildings. Officials warn that motorists should expect traffic delays.
And in New York City, six firefighters were slightly injured while battling a blaze in a high-rise apartment building in Chinatown. The building was evacuated and the flames put out.
George W. Bush and John Kerry are back on the campaign trail this morning, and as usual, they're trying to stir up support in those all- important battleground states.
Judy Woodruff with me now for more from Washington.
Judy, good morning.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Daryn. Thanks very much.
Well, Bush and Kerry are spending almost all their times in political battlegrounds like Pennsylvania. President Bush is headed there today, where he is expected to talk about the economy. Aides say he also plans to expand on his convention speech, where he talked about creating what he called an ownership society.
Senator Kerry is in Iowa this morning, where he;s holding a discussion on health care issues in Des Moines. Later, he travels to New Orleans to address the National Baptist Convention. New CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup polls in four important battleground states show gains for President Bush, for the most part. The president now leads in two of the states. Senator John Kerry leads in one. And Pennsylvania is a virtual tie. Bush holds his biggest lead, 14 points, among likely voters in Missouri. In Ohio, Bush leads by 8 points among likely voters, but the race is much closer among the broader group of registered voters. In Washington State, Kerry has an eight-point lead among both likely and registered voters. And in Pennsylvania, the race is neck and neck, with Bush holding a one-point lead among likely voters. President Bush won Missouri and Ohio in 2000. But he lost Washington state and Pennsylvania to Al Gore. Well, Vietnam and Iraq continue to dominate the political headlines, but the economy still is apparently on the minds of many voters. This afternoon, we're going to look at how the issue will affect the election in just 54 days.
Plus, was he there or not? As the controversy over President Bush's National Guard service intensifies, we'll have the latest, when I go inside politics at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
For now, let's go back to Daryn in Atlanta.
KAGAN: All right, Judy, thank you for that.
WOODRUFF: Thank you.
KAGAN: More political news now. Democrats are spitting mad over the vice president's not-so-subtle suggestion that a vote for John Kerry to lead to another terrorist attack.
But as our senior political analyst Bill Schneider found, fear is actually an old factor in presidential politics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: A presidential race can be a choice between fear of the unknown and fear of the known. John Kerry, like all challengers, is running on fear of the known.
KERRY: This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and he's cost all of you $200 billion that could have gone to schools, could have gone to health care.
SCHNEIDER: The Republicans' answer, fear of the unknown.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again.
SCHNEIDER: Democrats were outraged and quick to respond.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think Cheney's scare tactics today crossed the line. This is un-American.
SCHNEIDER: But not unheard-of. Fear tactics usually work best against a challenger, someone largely unknown, like Barry Goldwater in 1964.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JOHNSON-HUMPHREY CAMPAIGN AD, 1964)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Jimmy Carter tried the same thing against an unknown and scary challenger in 1980, Ronald Reagan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, August 15, 1980)
JIMMY CARTER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This radical and irresponsible course would threaten our security and could put the whole world in peril.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: In 1984, the Reagan campaign turned the argument against the Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, REAGAN-BUSH CAMPAIGN AD, 1984)
ANNOUNCER: Isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Notice how fears had shifted, from Republican recklessness to Democratic weakness, a fear Republicans exploited again in 1988.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, BUSH-QUAYLE CAMPAIGN AD, 1988)
ANNOUNCER: And now he wants to be our commander in chief. America can't afford that risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Scare tactics work if they're based on real concerns about a candidate, Goldwater as trigger happy, Dukakis as weak.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: There is some good news for former President Clinton. I'll tell you what that is, coming up next.
And what happened to him is actually important news for the rest of us. Keeping your heart healthy is ahead in your "Daily Dose" of health news.
And later, what goes up, must come down. Not the way it's supposed to, though. What is next for NASA? The details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Out of intensive care, former President Bill Clinton continues to recuperate from quadruple-bypass surgery. According to a posting on his Web site, Clinton is able to walk with assistance and sit up in a chair. He's expected to leave the hospital by the end of the week. Doctors say it will take two to three months for a full recovery.
And doctors say they got to President Clinton just in time. He had been actually having symptoms for several months, and blockages in some of his arteries well over 90 percent. Is there a lesson in there for the rest of us? Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us with that.
Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
There are so many lessons for the rest of us. First of all, the importance of diet and exercise, of keeping your cholesterol down, of keeping your body in good shape. That's one lesson.
A second lesson that President Clinton can teach, is not to just brush aside chest pain. If you're feeling chest pain, go to the doctor. A lot of people think, oh, it's not really that bad, I'll just wait. Waiting is often not a very good idea. And even not just chest pain, fatigue, those kinds of symptoms, extreme fatigue, having trouble getting up the stairs like you usually do, not good things to brush aside.
Let's take a look at two things that when you go to the doctor that they're going to check for. One is blood pressure, and this is something people should have consistently checked whether or not they are having symptoms. Normal would be considered less than 120/80. Higher would be -- high blood pressure would be considered greater than 140 over 90. Anything in between those two readings is now considered pre-hypertension, and might possibly be a reason for your doctor to put you on a special diet program or even on drugs.
Now, let's take a look at cholesterol levels. Cholesterol levels that would be considered desirable would be less than 200 milligrams for total cholesterol, but the really important number is what is called the LDL, or the bad cholesterol, and wanting to keep that below 129 milligrams, and even lower than that, in some cases even lower than 100 if you're at a particularly high risk for cholesterol. So those are the two standards that doctor are going to really be looking at to keep your heart in good health.
KAGAN: OK, one of the terms that we are hearing was angiogram, that the president received.
COHEN: Right, the president actually did an exclusive interview with "LARRY KING LIVE," when he was in the hospital, just before his surgery, and he mentioned that. So let's listen to what the president had so say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think if people have a family history there, and high cholesterol and high blood pressure, they ought to consider the angiogram, even if they don't have the symptoms I had, that there is some chance of damage there, but it's like one in a thousand. I really think it probably saved my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now an angiogram is when doctors thread a catheter up to your heart, and they inject a dye, so they get a road map of the vessels in your heart, and that's when they can see what's blocked and what's not, and that's really the gold standard. Now of course now everyone needs to rush out and have one of those just because they're feeling great. Your doctor can tell you whether or not you really need one.
KAGAN: All right, but awareness definitely raised across this country.
COHEN: That's right. I mea, you hear stories about people who just over the past five days have said, gee, I'm just not feeling great, I think I ought to go to the doctor, based on President Clinton's experience.
KAGAN: Great. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for that.
COHEN: Thanks.
KAGAN: To get your daily dose of health news online, you'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address is CNN.com/health.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: Still to come, a grim milestone in Iraq: more than a thousand U.S. military personnel are now dead. We'll put some names and faces to those numbers, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Earlier this week, American forces passed a grim milestone in Iraq. More than a thousand of them have died there. Who were these Americans? And how did they die?
CNN's correspondent Beth Nissen has some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the language of the military, they are the fallen warriors, the 1,000 U.S. troops who have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom, more than 860 of them since May 1st of last year when major combat operations were declared at an end.
Combat continued in the streets and alleys of Baghdad, in the hot dust of Fallujah and Ramadi, in the cemetery of Najaf. Troops deaths peaked this spring, 50 in March, 134 in April the deadliest single month of the war, 81 in May.
How they died is not always clear in the Department of Defense releases or in the fog of war on the ground. At lest 80 troops are listed simply as killed in enemy or hostile action. As many as one in five died the way soldiers have in every modern war, shot in firefights, on patrol, by snipers.
Another 125 were killed by rocket-propelled grenades, mortars. Almost double that number have been killed by one of this war's greatest threats, IEDs, improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs. At least 237 U.S. troops have been killed by IEDs set along roads, thrown into vehicles, detonated on passing convoys.
Vehicles are dangerous places in Iraq even in the absence of enemy attack. At least 107 troops, just over ten percent of the war dead, were killed in motor vehicle accidents when their Humvees and Bradleys and trucks collided in dust storms, rolled over on Iraq's poor roads, went off road and tumbled into ravines and canals.
Helicopters, another vital means of transport and supply, are also a constant danger. Eighty-three U.S. troops have died when their helicopters were shot down or crashed, 17 on one day alone last November 15th when two Black Hawk helicopters collided over Mosul.
In this war, in any war, there are accidents, non-combat deaths. In Iraq, at least 30 U.S. troops have died in accidental shootings, often as they or their comrades cleaned their weapons. Some of these weapon discharges were not accidents.
The Pentagon has confirmed that at least 26 Operation Iraqi Freedom troops have committed suicide. Other deaths have been caused by the same kind of accidents that might befall a population of 137,000 anywhere.
At least 16 U.S. military personnel have drowned in Iraq, crossing or swimming in rivers and canals. Seven were electrocuted. Troops in Iraq have also died of illnesses that claim thousands of civilian lives each year. At least 13 have died of heart failure, others suffered strokes, died of acute leukemia, cancer.
Who were these 1,000 Americans in uniform? The great majority, more than 720 were in the Army, the 101st Airborne, 1st Armored Division, 1st Infantry Division.
Since April when the Marines replaced Army units in the explosive Al Anbar province, a growing number of the dead have been Marines. More than 240 have died in Iraq so far, 33 last month alone.
Every branch of the service has seen losses, the Navy, the Air Force, even the Coast Guard. Those fighting for the U.S. in Iraq and those who have died represent the American population in broad strokes.
African Americans accounted for an estimated 13 percent of the dead, Hispanics another 12 percent. Seventy percent of the war dead were Caucasian, white men. Only 22 of the military fatalities have been women, almost half of them killed when their convoys hit roadside bombs.
The common denominator for most of these casualties is youth. Just over half of those killed in Iraq have been age 25 or younger. The youngest were 18, 19 years old. At least 77 were teenagers, the oldest 51, 55, 59.
An unprecedented number of regular enlistees and reservists in the all voluntary military are older in their 30s and 40s and married. The Defense Department does not release information on families but, according to the Associated Press and reports in obituaries in local newspapers, more than 400 of the troops killed in Iraq were married, a third had children, most of them young. At least 389 children under the age of 12 have lost a father and five have lost a mother in Iraq. The numbers say so much and so little.
One thousand American lives lost, 1,000 individuals who had middle names that someone proudly chose for them, who had pictures taken on the first day of Kindergarten and at high school graduation, who had plans for the future, to be a police officer or a college student or a dad for the third time who wanted to serve their country and did at such great price.
Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)
KAGAN: Well, even the most meticulous plans can go awry. What's missing here? That would be the parachute. The capsule from the Genesis spacecraft was supposed to glide to Earth and by plucked out of the air by a helicopter over the Utah desert. We talked a lot about this yesterday. Well, instead it fell like a meteor. Scientists will now have to determine whether the three-year experiment is a total bust.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY DANTZLER, NASA SCIENTIST: Everything that Genesis collected is here on Earth. We always had a contingency plan that if something like this happened, that the curation scientists, essentially the people who look at these samples and decide where the science is within the collectors, they would have the job of putting these samples back together to the point of determining how much science can be gotten out.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: So at this point the samples, the solar samples, can they be used? Or do you have an answer on that?
DANTZLER: We can't say for sure right, but it does not look like a total loss, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Well, that would be a good bonus there. The capsule carries microscopic bits of silver dust that scientists still hope will provide clues about the origins of the universe.
Well, that's going to wrap it up for me, Daryn Kagan. I will see you right back here in the seat tomorrow morning. Wolf Blitzer taking over from Washington D.C.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
