Posted on 06/01/2008 12:25:24 PM PDT by Mikey_1962
U.S. monthly death toll drops to new low
* Iraq says oil production at post-war high
* Australia pulls out combat troops
By Ross Colvin
BAGHDAD, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the 2003 invasion and officials said on Sunday improved security also helped the country boost oil production in May to a post-war high.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Iraq's oil minister credited better security for the two milestones, which illustrated a dramatic turnabout in the fortunes of a country on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war just 12 months ago.
"We've still got a distance to go but I think lower casualty rates are a reflection of some real progress," Gates told reporters in Singapore. "The key will be to continue to sustain the progress we have seen."
American generals have stressed that the security gains are both fragile and reversible. That was shown in March, when an Iraqi government offensive against Shi'ite militias in southern Basra sparked a surge in violence in the capital and other cities, catching U.S. and Iraqi officials off guard.
The U.S. military said 19 soldiers died in May, the lowest monthly death toll in a five-year-old war that has so far claimed the lives of more than 4,000 American soldiers
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Post war IRAQ oil up ping.
We need to capitalize on this and make sure we finish the job...
We all know that the Surge and our Troops and awesome leadership is reason this has come to pass.
If you listen to Pelosi, she says all the Thanks goes to Iran!!!!
We need to get rid of the Enemy Within!
Thank God we have a Leader who knows to listen to our Military commanders!
Great! When does the Iraqi oil finally start arriving????
That’s what I thought......
It is the only deep water port in Iraq and that area produces a lot of oil
Now that the city is being controlled, it's use to import/export and the ability for the Iraqi's to control the oil instead of the terrorist-type Islamists will be a boon to the country if control can be maintained.
Iraq made over 50 billion on oil last year. (I read a statistic recently, not sure about the exact $ #)
We have WON the war in Iraq and Al Qaeda has been utterly DEFEATED.
I Reuters is posting this you know the truth is
overwhelming.
Classic. Just classic. This reporter manages to get his facts mostly correct, but arranges them in such a way that the reader takes away precisely the opposite impression he should. It is indeed fragile and reversible, but it was made decidedly less fragile and reversible by the stated offensive by the Iraqi government in March in Basra. U.S. officials were indeed caught off guard by the timing by the Iraqi government in the March offensive, but all would agree that things are much better off because of it.
Damn straight!
Quite the contrary. A constitutional Reagan Republican.
Q: Which US president was Commander-in-Chief when an average of 1000 Americans died per month in Korea?
A: Harry S Truman
As we have discussed before the defeatist media will try their best to hide our victory in Iraq but they are going to fail and they have failed indeed. It is very hard to hide VICTORY even for the defeatist media.
Arrive where?
Sadr still needs to go toes up.
In the US. Since we can’t drill for what we have here.
The Basra Port is the big prize, it had been run by a Mafia type group with huge payoffs it ship in or out.
Maybe the oil will flow better now...
I believe that the US is the largest importer of Iraqi oil.
On now it’s “was on the brink of” civil war and not actual civil war.
How about a “we were wrong to call it civil war”?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.