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The Truth About Iraq's Casualty Count ( MAX BOOT )
wsj.com ^
| May 3, 2008
| MAX BOOT
Posted on 05/03/2008 6:06:18 AM PDT by kellynla
The newspapers are predictably filled with articles about how 52 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq last month the highest toll since September. Iraqi civilian casualties are also said to be at the highest level since August. These losses are being used to cast aspersions on claims of progress in Iraq.
Even one death is too many and 52 deaths is tragedy multiplied 52-fold. But let's keep some perspective. As the icasualties.org website makes clear, for better or worse, April was still one of the lighter-casualty months during the long war in Iraq.
More important, casualties cannot be looked at in a vacuum. A spike in casualties could be a sign that the enemy is gaining strength. Or it could be a sign that tough combat is under way that will lead to the enemy's defeat and the creation of a more peaceful environment in the future.
The latter was certainly the case with the casualty spike during the summer of 2007. (More than a hundred soldiers died each month in April, May and June.) Those losses were widely denounced as evidence that the surge wasn't working, but in fact they were proof of the opposite.
At the time, troops were engaged in hard fighting as part of Operation Phantom Thunder that eventually cleared most terrorists out of Anbar, Baghdad, Diyala, Babil and other provinces, leading to dramatic reductions in violence over the last year (more than 80% before the recent fighting).
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: alsadr; casualties; fallen; iraq; mahdi; moqtada; sadar; war
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While we mourn the death of each and every one; FDR & JFK would have given their right arm to have liberated 50 million people (Iraq & Afganistan) with less than 5K KIA.
1
posted on
05/03/2008 6:06:18 AM PDT
by
kellynla
To: freema; SandRat
You might want to ping your lists.
“All paid some, some paid all.”
Semper Fi,
Kelly
2
posted on
05/03/2008 6:07:17 AM PDT
by
kellynla
(Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
To: kellynla
3
posted on
05/03/2008 6:10:32 AM PDT
by
Diogenesis
(Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
To: kellynla
4
posted on
05/03/2008 6:11:01 AM PDT
by
nuconvert
(There are bad people in the pistachio business.)
To: kellynla
5
posted on
05/03/2008 6:24:53 AM PDT
by
elfman2
("As goes Fallujah, so goes Central Iraq and so goes the entire country" -Col Coleman, USMC ,4/2004)
To: 91B; HiJinx; Spiff; MJY1288; xzins; Calpernia; clintonh8r; TEXOKIE; windchime; freekitty; ...
Interesting analysis from the Wall Street Journal.
6
posted on
05/03/2008 6:36:30 AM PDT
by
SandRat
(Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs to said?)
To: kellynla
God Bless Our Troops and their Commander in Chief, President Bush.
Thanks for the post.
7
posted on
05/03/2008 6:51:56 AM PDT
by
wizr
("Today we are engaged in a final all out battle between Communism and Christianity." - Joe McCarthy)
To: Diogenesis; namsman
WOW! Great graph! I have a BUNCH of liberals I need to send that to!
8
posted on
05/03/2008 6:54:17 AM PDT
by
SW6906
(6 things you can't have too much of: sex, money, firewood, horsepower, guns and ammunition.)
To: kellynla
An April 25 article by a London Times correspondent who visited Basra finds: "Raids are continuing in a few remaining strongholds but the Iraqi commander in charge of the unprecedented operation is confident that his forces will soon achieve something that the British military could not a city free from rogue gunmen." Ouch.
To: wizr; kellynla; 1stbn27; 2111USMC; 2nd Bn, 11th Mar; 68 grunt; A.A. Cunningham; ASOC; ...
10
posted on
05/03/2008 7:25:11 AM PDT
by
freema
(Proud Marine Niece, Daughter, Wife, Friend, Sister, Cousin, Mom and FRiend)
To: kellynla
This is a lot like writing that the out of town team scored 7 runs on the local sports page.
If you leave out the fact that the home team scored 32 runs and the out of towners finally retired all of their pitchers and had the third baseman pitch - people get the wrong idea.
So how many casualties did our muslim foes have?
11
posted on
05/03/2008 8:11:11 AM PDT
by
MrEdd
(Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
To: freema
12
posted on
05/03/2008 8:23:22 AM PDT
by
USMCPOP
(Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
To: USMCPOP
13
posted on
05/03/2008 8:36:56 AM PDT
by
freema
(Proud Marine Niece, Daughter, Wife, Friend, Sister, Cousin, Mom and FRiend)
To: aflaak
14
posted on
05/03/2008 9:57:11 AM PDT
by
r-q-tek86
(If you're not taking flak, you're not over the target.)
To: kellynla; freema
The ill-informed masses shall stay how should we say... ill-informed.
15
posted on
05/03/2008 4:42:37 PM PDT
by
Marine_Uncle
(Duncan Hunter was our best choice...)
To: Diogenesis
WOW!!! That graph says a lot.
To: Diogenesis; SW6906; mjaneangels@aolcom
The graph doesn’t look correct. Total KIA in Iraq are a bit over 4000 for the duration, but the red Iraq graph points don’t appear to cumulatively add up much higher then the 500 level.
17
posted on
05/03/2008 11:49:10 PM PDT
by
tlb
To: tlb
Neither graph is cumulative. They each present the number of US servicemembers killed in action each month.
To: MediaMole
Neither graph is cumulative yes, but my point was the red line for Iraq casualties seems unreasonably low. IF you did consider the losses cumulatively the red line doesn’t appear it would reach the 500 line, much less 4000.
19
posted on
05/04/2008 1:33:31 AM PDT
by
tlb
To: Diogenesis
20
posted on
05/05/2008 8:21:00 PM PDT
by
CPT Clay
(Drill ANWR, Personal Accounts NOW ,)
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