SVC has challenged the contributors here at NWBloggers to nominate our critter/person/entity/group/thing that impacted history the most in 2006…

After a great deal of thought, and with the criteria of Impacted History foremost in my mind, I don't believe that there can be any doubt that the Person/Group that most impacted history in 2006 was the Islamic Terrorist.

These fanatics have, just this year;

1. Kept the most powerful nation on earth tied down in a war of attrition.

2. Harassed and murdered civilians from numerous countries, almost with impunity.

3. Contributed strongly to the recent electoral defeat of the Republicans in the House and Senate, with repercussions for the next two years, if not more…

4. Cost average travelers literally millions of extra lost hours due to ever increasing restrictions on travel paperwork, and even how bags are packed.

I thought this would be hard. I was wrong. I just read a headline on the Seattle Times’ Website that mentioned that the 3,000th military death had been reached in Iraq. It’s a shame that our media has to make a big deal over these “round” numbers as if they’re significant. Every military death is significant.

The media has used these “milestone” deaths to try to dampen our support for the mission of our troops. It’s been quite an effective tactic, with the constant drumbeat eroding support for the war. Even so, this war has had a surprisingly small number of troop deaths compared to other wars. That can, in large part, be attributed to the success of our troops in dealing with the enemy.