I start my new week of posting and ranting….over weekend there was so much noise in the media…..we had all the lip service from the candidates and none of it was worth a crap.

There was a quick couple of seconds about a US Marine that was killed in Iraq by a rocket attack….but there was more coverage of a kid that stole a cement truck and went on a joy ride than the death of an American…..and let’s not forget the endless coverage of who will be there at the AIPAC meeting and who will  not (more worthless info)……  Now that is excellent journalism (sarcasm)…….

Over the weekend we passed an anniversary…..our second longest war in our history…..Iraq….13 years on…..and NO one cares!

On March 19, 2003, US troops invaded Iraq, setting the stage for almost nine years of military occupation. But even though the US nominally withdrew from Iraq in 2011, it wasn’t long before the Obama Administration was sending troops back in for a whole additional war.

Indeed, the weekend anniversary arrived with news of a US Marine killed in rocket fire from ISIS forces against a military base, and additional US troops were reported wounded in the incident, reminding everyone that 13 years in, US troops are still not just on the ground in Iraq, but in harm’s way.

And while the previous few anniversaries may have fueled reflection on the losses of the initial occupation, in 2016 the attention is turning toward the ever-increasing escalation in the ‘new’ conflict, with the Pentagon admitting that they have far more troops in Iraq than public estimates, and more than the current US agreement with Iraq legally allows.

This is where I am going with this post……

While most Americans were concerned with their brackets or what candidate did what there was an announcement that could be the biggest of the weekend….

In the wake of the death of a US Marine in northwestern Iraq in an ISIS rocket attack on Saturday, the Pentagon has announced they are in the process of deploying an undisclosed number of additional Marines to Iraq to take part in ground combat against ISIS.

The number of troops deployed, and how big a force this will have the US up to in Iraq, remains unknown, but the US was already confirmed to have more troops in Iraq than their diplomatic deal with the Abadi government permitted, and has only increased the number of troops since.

Pentagon officials are still being somewhat evasive about the Saturday rocket strikes as well, confirming there were wounded Marines too, but refusing to say how many, beyond “less than five.”

I ask the media……why report on something this insignificant when there is far more important crap happening……like your damn brackets? (trying to be extremely sarcastic….did I succeed?)