A look at U.S. daily casualties in Iraq

[JaneQPublic]

`Just to keep the losses in the forefront of our minds, even if the story is not on the front of the newspapers.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/205/nation/A_look_at_U_S_daily_casualties:.shtml

As of Thursday, July 24, 239 U.S. soldiers have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the Defense Department's most recent figures.

The British government has reported 43 casualties and 1 civilian death.

On or since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 101 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, according to the Pentagon's most recent figures.

Here is information from the U.S. military on the latest U.S. casualties in Iraq...

MORE...

[RamboLiberal]

1. If this rate continues it looks like in sometime in August

the US dead after Chimpy's photo-op day when he declared the war over will exceed the pre strutting codpiece day.

Damn him and his PNAC'ers.

[Wonder]

2. at one point PNACers expected a US fatality of up to 1000

However if this proves to be an indefinite stay ????

I am not sure what the average per week calculation has been. At one point it was reported to have increased between 2-5 per week. Now I do not know generally how they would project a figure, but simplistically

256 / 5 = 51.2 per month X 5 more months would bring total US fatality to 512 by years end. How macabre. These guys so young fight this bush&co cause, I only hope that no matter what the concensus on this is here on forum, besides the post trauma to be expected...well... I just feel for them. The grunts operating on a need to know... it is saddening.

Two things. Some may have contention with this site as an antiwar site jimmying numbers. I mean I have run across those on other forums feel IBC is bullshit. Yet at one point the guardian factored in numbers from other groups tracking Iraqi civilian fatalities. Here are those numbers as reported on IBC

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Also an article I ran across by Stan Goff. His response to Bush's call for Ba ath militants to Bring 'em on

___________________

A Former Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis to Attack US Troops
"Bring 'Em On?"

By STAN GOFF

He makes parallels between Iraq and Vietnam. Last paragraph:

This de facto president is finally seeing his poll numbers fall. Even chauvinist paranoia has a half-life, it seems. His legitimacy is being eroded as even the mainstream press has discovered now that the pretext for the war was a lie. It may have been control over the oil, after all. Anti-war forces are regrouping as an anti-occupation movement. Now, exercising his one true talent--blundering--George W. Bush has begun the improbable process of alienating the very troops upon whom he depends to carry out the neo-con ambition of restructuring the world by arms.

Somewhere in Balad, or Fallujah, or Baghdad, there is a soldier telling a new replacement, "We are losing this war."

Stan Goff is the author of "Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti" (Soft Skull Press, 2000) and of the upcoming book "Full Spectrum Disorder" (Soft Skull Press, 2003). He retired in 1996 from the US Army, from 3rd Special Forces. He lives in Raleigh.

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff07032003.html

[saigon68]

4. GREAT QUOTE

"Now, exercising his one true talent--blundering--George W. Bush has begun the improbable process of alienating the very troops upon whom he depends."

What a PIECE of Work--- the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Wonder]

5. I am curious about something

You might be following the troop rotations. I do not recall, but have a vague recollection that none of these infantries have had replacements, have they?

I have heard talk of low morale. I wonder if that is because those troops that have been their since the invasion sense, as Goff states, we are losing, or already might feel they are fighting a futile effort based on false premises. Low troop morale can not be a good thing for an assortment of reasons.

[TrueBlueDem]

3. Body Count post-"Mission Accomplished" Speech

Good point, rmpalmer.

And if the Repukes try to pedal his codpiece flightsuit photo for campaigning/fundraising purposes, they will present us with the perfect opportunity to hammer on the point that more U.S. soldiers have died during Chimpy's "Peace" than during his war.

[indictrichardperle]

6. factor in the wounded

just as the KIA have accelerated, that can also be said of the wounded.

2000 to 3000 wounded would be a likely number as we approach the date when KIA post -May 1st exceed the "active war" number.

[JackSwift]

7. Attending funerals

How many have Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rummy and Powell attended?