U.S. Death Toll in Falluja Offensive Reaches 71

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-one U.S. troops were killed in the offensive led by U.S. Marines to take control of the Iraqi city Falluja from insurgents, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, a toll 20 higher than previously reported.



Falluja, a Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 people 30 miles west of Baghdad, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the initial U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) in March 2003.


The Falluja offensive caused more than half of the total U.S. military fatalities in Iraq in November, the second-deadliest month of the 20-month war. According to Pentagon (news - web sites) figures released on Wednesday, 134 U.S. troops died in Iraq in November, one shy of the previous worst month, April 2004.


Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said 71 U.S. troops were killed in Falluja during the offensive launched on Nov. 8. The previous official tally was 51, given by Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Sattler on Nov. 18.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041202/us_nm/iraq_falluja_casualties_dc&cid=1896&ncid=1480

:) for our troops and sad for the innocents of Fallujah that have lost their lives in this unjust war. :(

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. How many Iraqi lives lost?

Will we ever know?

I called my Congressman and asked about the rumor that napalm was used on civilians there. The secretary who took the call sighed and with a voice like "You're that whiney one" made me talk sloooowwwwlllyy so she could write down my complaint. She wasn't impressed when I told her that using napalm was inhumane and that Iraqis are people, too.

[maddezmom]

2. we will never know

and the majority of US citizens don't care...:( They'd rather "fight them where they are, instead of in our own country"...WTF ever that means.
The citizens of Fallujah never did a thing to us, before we bombed them. I do not blame the average GI Joe...I fault the civilian leadership.

[maxsolomon]

3. 71 dead for what, exactly?

what was accomplished?

i don't know how you could make an argument that fallujah had to be cleared to "protect our freedoms". it was brutal imperial oppression, period. of course, it may have been neccessary to "pacify" iraq, but lets not kid our selves that we're selfless in our intent.

i'm constantly amazed that "conservatives" have settled on humanitarian concern & nation building as their rationale for our imperial war.

what gall.
what willful self delusion.

[movonne]

4. I went in an rated this one and it seems like nobody cares..48 people

rated it and it only had l.27 rating..I find this very disturbing..

[Calico Jack Rackham]

5. Typical

They wait till after the new month begins to relase KIA figures. This way November won't be the deadliest month for our boys since the war began.