Posted on 08/01/2010 10:42:33 AM PDT by hreardon
Iraq's monthly death toll in July climbed to its highest level in more than two years, as the country's political process is still paralyzed about five months after the country's parliamentary elections.
[snip] U.S. forces have pulled out of Iraqi cities and are working to formally end combat operations by Sept. 1 of this year, cutting the U.S. military force to 50,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.people.com.cn ...
China’s version of Pravda.....
July 31, 2010 - Three more U.S. troops fighting for their country were killed Friday, raising the death toll to 66 in July - the deadliest month in the 9-year war in Afghanistan.
The previous monthly high was in June when 60 were killed.
and the MSM is silent
old news.
We are already down to 6 effective BCTs [AABs].
2/3 in Ninawa
2-25 in Diyala/Salahadin [Just relieved 3/2]
[mix of 2/3 and 2-25 in Kirkuk under residual 1/1A BSTB/BSB task unit - all of 1/1A’s combat bns are heading home.]
1/3 in Baghdad [4/2 is outbound]
4/3 in Anbar [Just relieved 1/82.]
3/3 is in the Mid-Euphraties
3/4 is in the south.
Most of what is being pulled out now is support units and equipment.
Note: USF-I disagrees with this reported death-toll...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100801/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunresttollus
Thanks for the update. Didn’t realize this was old news. DOD quit sending my daily email bulletins that I had subscribed to in February.
Don’t know how the US military could refute the death toll released by the Iraqi government. If they’re not in the cities anymore how would they know?
My best guess at this point is that the Iraqis should start brushing up on their Farsi.
From CNN:
Iraq, U.S., offer conflicting death toll in Iraq
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/08/01/iraq.july.casualties/
“The U.S. command in Baghdad “refutes that 535 people were killed in Iraq during the month of July,” the military said in a statement. It put the total number of people killed by “enemy action” at 222, including 161 civilians, 55 Iraqi troops and six Americans — the ninth-lowest civilian casualty count since January 2008, according to the U.S. military.
Iraqi data released Saturday reported 396 civilians, 50 Iraqi soldiers and 89 police officers were killed in July. Iraqi officials also said 100 so-called “terrorists” were killed, and 955 others were detained.”
My wife is from the Philippines. Her extended family has a handful of relatives who have returned in recent months from contract jobs in Iraq. The report among them is fairly consistant, apparently, and can be summed up as, “Things are going to hell quickly as the US withdraws.”
Not quite sure when this country’s ruling civilian and military elite is going to understand the need to drop this quest to have our military efforts and wealth go into “nation building” and “global policing” and such, and get back to their quaint old primary mission - defending our sovereign nation from our enemies by unleashing our might against them and vanquishing them.
Any wars we’ve won since WWII? Any unconditional surrenders we’ve achieved? The lives of our brave men and women, and the wealth of our citizens, went for WHAT, exactly, have accomplished WHAT, exactly?
VOA says:
Iraq’s July Death Toll Highest In 2 Years
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Iraqs-July-Death-Toll-Highest-In-2-Years-99718364.html
“Government figures released by Iraqi’s Health, Defense and Interior ministries late Saturday show 535 people were killed across the country in July, while nearly 1,043 people were wounded.
The July death toll in Iraq is the highest since May 2008, when 563 people were killed.”
“Things are going to hell quickly as the US withdraws.â€
This is NOT a surprise, everyone knew this was going to happen.
“The U.S. command in Baghdad “
Er, isn’t that in the “Green Zone” where it’s nice and safe? Once again, how would they know?
Just because we don’t have “combat” units in the cities, does not mean we do not have MiTTs, PTTs, FPTTs, etc embeded in ISF forces...
Officially, All of the BCTs still in Iraq are “Advisory and Assistance Brigades.” Not “combat” units. The difference between a BCT and an AAB is that an AAB has extra officers/NCOs filling the ISF embedded training team duties.
In other words, we are still in a position to know because we are embeded in the ISF as “Trainers”.
I hate to admit it but I always have thought this would happen. Bush gave a good run at it, but the follow-through just won't be there.
It is sad to say but I believe the people in these countries have lived with madness and insanity and warring factions/tribes/groups for so long that I don’t think they can combat that deep rooted behavior with a behavior of sane civilization and democracy. I believe many there want it, but don’t know how to hold onto it. And the factions that want to have power by murdering and threatening will win with their old ways. So sad.
I think I know why the numbers are off.
Kuwait turned over more than 300 Iraqi bodies from 1991 last month. They would have just been logged into the Iraqi system for July...
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