Boston Globe: Roadside Bombs Kill Troops At Highest Rate of Iraq War (Dec. On Track To Be Deadliest)

[Hissyspit]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/12/17/roadside_bombs_kill_troops_at_highest_rate_of_iraq_war/?p1=email_to_a_friend

Roadside bombs kill troops at highest rate of Iraq war
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | December 17, 2006

WASHINGTON -- US troops in Iraq are dying in roadside bombings at a higher rate than any period since the war began -- some in follow-up attacks in the same locations -- but commanders still have no effective means to monitor the deadliest routes for patrols, according to Pentagon officials and documents.

Military deaths from roadside bombs have hit an all-time high in recent months: In October, 53 US troops died from improvised explosive devices, while in November, 49 troop deaths were blamed on so-called IEDs -- the second and third highest monthly tolls of the war, official statistics and casualty reports show.

That is far higher than the overall monthly average of 28 IED-related deaths since July 2003, when the data were first compiled. And in the three previous months, between 22 and 29 soldiers and Marines died from roadside bombs.

- snip -

"The enemy has the ability to freely fabricate IED and car bombs, plant and set ambushes, rocket, mortar and IED attacks, and have the recruits and resources crossing borders to reinforce and resupply the insurgent forces undetected," according to a recent briefing prepared for top Pentagon officials responsible for counter-insurgency strategy.

December is on track to become the deadliest month of all. According to news reports, 53 soldiers died as of Dec. 16; Pentagon data indicates that roughly 60 percent of all casualties this month came from roadside bombings. Throughout much of the war, IEDs have caused about half of all US combat deaths in Iraq, according to a September study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

MORE

[Botany]

1. Adapting to Win

[Double T]

2. But laura bush and rumsfeld tell 'US' everything is NOT as bad as the...........

reports from the various media indicate. SOMEONE must be in denial, or delusional, or just a DAMN LIAR, BUT WHO??????

[Danmel]

3. My friend's step son is in Ramadi

He is 20 years old. We saw him last Christmas and he was just on a leave from basic training- all hoo- ah and gung-ho.

He called them from Anbar. He saw one unit mate get blown to bits in front of him and had another buddy die in his arms. He had to kill 3 insurgents. He is not a happy young man. He is scared, he feels guilty and is not getting out of there anytime soon- all of this has happened since September.

To send our young people not only to risk death or to die or to be maimed, but to kill other people- that is one hell of a responsibility. To do it for this, like this and to continue to send young people to die or to kill for no reason and for a lost cause?

There are no words really for it. I just hope he gets out as intact as possible- they are not wealthy well educated people and this was his ticket to an education. It is a tragedy that he will have this burden for the rest of his life while our idiot in chief "sleeps better than you'd think".

[ckramer]

4. "He is scared, he feels guilty..."

Not only that, he is also done as a normal human being.

War ruins young people's life therefore it sucks.

[RamboLiberal]

5. I've been mourning this young Marine all weekend

Lance Corporal Matt Clark(22) killed by an IED Thursday. I didn't know him personally but had felt I had gotten to know him via Lynn Cullen a local liberal Pittsburgh talk show host whose niece he dated. He joined the Marines after 9-11 to honor his late father who was an ex-Marine.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/247B266FB61AB624862572460016254C?OpenDocument

Marine Lance Cpl. Matt Clark thought about his mother when he filled out his emergency contact form before leaving for Iraq three months ago.

He wrote that he wanted his priest present if his mother had to hear the news dreaded by every parent of a child in the service.

On Thursday night, Msgr. Vernon Gardin accompanied three Marines to break the news that Clark was not coming home. That morning, at 8 a.m. St. Louis time, Clark, 22, was driving a vehicle when he was killed by a roadside bomb, Gardin said.

The word spread through a flurry of calls and e-mail among alumni and faculty members of Ladue Horton Watkins High School, where Clark graduated in 2002. He had transferred from Priory School at the end of his sophomore year and quickly became a key part of a close-knit drama club.

His High School photo.

[Porcupine]

6. It's "Kill Americans University" over there....

Any Iraqi that was screwing up in his role in the insurgency is now lilely dead. Everybody left has skill sets in survival and "killing of armored Americans" that exceed any others in the world. You can be sure that international observers from all over the world who are sick of US hegemony are taking notes.

The supremacy of armor in warfare is done. You can you is to penetrate territory but then there you are surrounded. It's going to look like the russians in Grozny more every day.

[pfitz59]

7. Survivor sophistication...

100,000 + troops cant't control a country the size of Texas. The "insurgents" hold all the cards. They decide the when, the where and the how. US troops are sitting ducks. And Bushy-boy is sending more to their deaths!!!!!!!!!!

[arewenotdemo]

8. It's a calculated risk that the Cheerleader-in-Chief was always

willing to take.

For every American killed probably 100 Iraqi males...of all ages...are murdered. While another 100 emigrate from Iraq.

If you do the math I think you'll see that soon enough Iraq won't have enough "military-age-males" to effectively resist the American occupation. If you're going to have a successful Nazi-style extermination policy you've got to do the math.

[krispos42]

9. try 2000 to 1

That survey gave 665,000 dead, directly and indirectly, from us invading Iraq and twice that have fled in terror to another country.

We're doing much better than in Vietnam, where the ratio was about 60:1.

I'm sure Bush's chest and crotch are both swelling with pride. And he got that ratio without having to carpet-bomb anything with B-52s. Probably saving that for the 4th of July...

[arewenotdemo]

10. I don't doubt it