The Crosses of Lafayette - Christmas Eve 2007

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973 US Troops Killed in Iraq in Last 12 Months

The Iraq Study Group was published one year ago today.

Although the final report was not released until December 6, 2006, media reports ahead of that date described some possible recommendations by the panel. Among them were the beginning of a phased withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq and direct US dialogue with Syria and Iran over Iraq and the Middle East. The Iraq Study Group also found that the Pentagon has underreported significantly the extent of the violence in Iraq and that officials have obtained little information regarding the source of these attacks. The group further described the situation in Afghanistan as so disastrous that they may need to divert troops from Iraq in order to help stabilize the country. After these reports began surfacing, co-chair James Baker warned that the group should not be expected to produce a "magic bullet" to resolve the Iraqi conflict.

According to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, 973 US Troops were killed in Iraq from December 6, 2006 through December 5, 2007.

Tip o' the hat to Atrios.

Calling General Petreus

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Here are the numbers from the Department of Defense on Iraq Casualties. Do they look way down to you?

If you are interested they are part of report on Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq. Click the PDF titled September 2007.

US Troop Deaths in Iraq

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In a post this morning entitled Arguments Over Night of The Living Dead in Iraq, Juan Cole points out the obvious:

I personally find the controversy about Iraq in Washington to be bizarre. Are they really arguing about whether the situation is improving? I mean, you have the Night of the Living Dead over there. People lack potable water, cholera has broken out even in the good areas, a third of people are hungry, a doubling of the internally displaced to at least 1.1 million, and a million pilgrims dispersed just this week by militia infighting in a supposedly safe all-Shiite area. The government has all but collapsed, with even the formerly cooperative sections of the Sunni Arab political class withdrawing in a snit (much less more Sunni Arabs being brought in from the cold). The parliament hasn't actually passed any legislation to speak of and often cannot get a quorum. Corruption is endemic. The weapons we give the Iraqi army are often sold off to the insurgency. Some of our development aid goes to them, too.

The average number of Iraqis killed in 2007 per day exceeds those killed in 2006. Independent counts by news organizations do not agree with Pentagon estimates about drops in civilian deaths over-all. Nation-wide attacks in June reached a daily all-time high of 177.5. True, violence in Baghdad has been wrestled back down to the levels of summer, 2006 (hint: it wasn't paradise), but violence levels are up in the rest of the country. If you compare each month in 2006 with each month in 2007 with regard to US military deaths, the 2007 picture is dreadful.

I saw on CNN this smarmy Bush administration official come and and say that US troop deaths had fallen because of the surge, which is why we should support it.

Fallen? You be the judge. Figures in the graph posted above are from Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

UPDATE: The main stream media is putting out the message that "combat deaths in Iraq" have fallen in half during the surge (even while civilian deaths have risen). Of course, US Troop deaths fell last summer as well. In part the Bush administration is parsing the data by using combat deaths rather than troop deaths. But what are the real patterns?

1. Troop deaths fall in the summer in Iraq.
2. The number of US troop deaths in 2007 has exceeded deaths in 2006 in EACH AND EVERY MONTH.

Read Kevin Drum for more.