Another milestone--3000 dead US Servicemembers

[kurtyboy]

As of this morning, over 3000 men and women of the United States' armed forces have been killed in Bush's "Global War on Terror"

2,666 in Iraq, and 335 in Afghanistan theater operations.

NATO's Commander in Afghanistan is calling for reinforcements, and Iraq occupation troop level's are alm,ost as high as they were at the start of the conflict.

No US President will ever again be able to utter the words "Mission Accomplished" in public--Bush has ruined the phrase for all time.

Meanwhile, Pakistan (with us AND against us, it seems) has negotiated a deal to re-arm and provided safe haven to the Taliban. Osama bin Laden will be safe so long as he lives like a "peaceful citizen."

Iraq has degenerated Exactly to where Iran has wanted it for over two decades, and North Korea's ambitions have sparked a resurgence of militarism in Japan, a nation that can build a seriously threatening nuclear arsenal quicker than you can say Afghanistan Bananastan.

And the price has been paid with American blood, and limbs, and eyes, and psyches. 901 wounded in Afghanistan, 19,945 wounded in Iraq. Countless cases of PTSD still coming....

At current loss rates:


US losses in Iraq alone will equal the 911 losses on February 1st, 2007.
Coalition Iraq deaths = 911 deaths on October 10th, 2006.
US Iraq deaths = 4,000 on or about June 3rd, 2008.
Coalition GWOT deaths = 5,000 on or about May 29th, 2008.
Election Day (Nov 4) 2008, US GWOT losses = 4,819.
Election Day (Nov 4) 2008, Coalition GWOT losses = 5,411.
Inauguration Day (Jan 20) 2009, US GWOT losses = 4,997.
Inauguration Day (Jan 20) 2009, Coalition GWOT losses = 5,610.

But, as Tony Snow points out, these are numbers.

Nothing. To. See. Here.

[Hubert Flottz]

1. Just a number... like 9/11?

Q Tony, American deaths in Iraq have reached 2,500. Is there any response or reaction from the President on that?

MR. SNOW: "It's a number, and every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks people want something."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060615-4.html

[warrens]

2. Now more than died on 911

[Straight Shooter]

3. I don't think you can use the numbers on the basis of "at this rate"

I fear the numbers will be exponential, as civil war takes on greater strength in Iraq, and our troops get caught in the middle, with both sides doing all they can to get rid of the occupation so they can concentrate on obtaining power for themselves.

As long as it isn't bush blood being shed, though, bush will continue to think he's "kicking Saddam's ass all over the Middle East." (see the new book, Hubris, for the direct quote)

[Jacobin]

13. Here's a good discussion of that:

The article is discussing some whizz bang technology the Pentagon is buying to 'disarm IEDs' which is self defeating since the IEDs can easily be tweaked to trick the whiz bang box cheaply.

It does go on to say that troops are huddled behind blast walls and can't get out into Iraq (in other words, we've lost and are holed up in bunkers) and the generals are keeping the troops in safe places to try to keep the casualty numbers down for the election.

This strikes me as a fairly textbook example of the Pentagon's failure to cope with the realities of asymmetric warfare. According to Gen. Meigs, his organization is now spending over $1.4 billion a year to develop new gizmos for finding, jamming and/or defusing IEDs. As a result, he proudly reports, over half of them are now detected before they explode.

But, compared to the cost of adding another high-tech acronym to the Defense Department's alphabet soup, IEDs are dirt cheap. And their killing power can be greatly expanded with relatively minor tweaks -- modifications that are well within the technological competence of most Iraqi insurgent groups, with or without Iranian help.

The numbers tell the story: While more IEDs are being found, even more are being planted. For a time, the high-tech gizmos were at least able to keep the casualties from rising, but now, Gen. Meigs grudgingly admits, they can't even do that:

The number of U.S. casualties caused by the devices has remained relatively constant, although it has edged upward in recent months, Meigs said.

But it gets worse (of course). More bombs and more casualties makes patrolling more dangerous, which increases the incentive for commanders to keep their soldiers off the roads and avoid particularly "hot" areas. This is fine with the brass, since they know that their political masters know that limiting the number of U.S. casualties is critical to keeping support for the war back home from collapsing completely.

http://billmon.org/

[Straight Shooter]

14. What will they do when all areas of Iraq are "hot" areas?

The Pentagon is one fine example of The Peter Principle run amok.

Thanks for the info. :thumbsup:

[Jacobin]

15. I think most of Iraq is "hot"

Which is why our troops stay in bunkers, only venturing out in convoys at their peril.

[Joanne98]

4. Rumsfield, "The numbers are actually distracting"

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. I notice, amongst these mere numbers,

that 335 dead in Afghanistan is 1/7th the 2666 dead in Iraq. Yet the troop numbers, best I can tell, are that there are 1/10th the troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq. woudn't that indicate that the war in Afghanistan is hotter than the one in Iraq?

But we hear next to nothing about Afghanistan.

[SmokingJacket]

6. I was just thinking that I've heard a lot more lately.

Lots of people dying. I thinking things ARE heating up.

[hedgehog]

7. We've become so numbed to this that I doubt anyone will notice.

It reminds me of the Viet Nam War when the newscasts announced the number of caualties each day, 5, 4, 7, until it became background noise.

[Buzz Clik]

10. Exactly. I wish that these impersonal postings of toe tags would stop.

[newyawker99]

8. ....

:cry:



:grr:

[Buzz Clik]

9. Doncha just love death statistics? They're so .... ice cold.

This mission in Iraq would be wrong with or without these numbers.

[coalition_unwilling]

11. There is no "War on Terror" -- there is a "War for Empire" that

uses Madison Avenue branding slogans to hookwink those who must fight and pay for that war.

[Nikki Stone 1]

12. Tony Snow is an idiot

:kick: and R