Here's some real news for you war mongers.
Shame, shame, shame on all of you. :-(
U=2ES. Military Deaths in Top 1,500
Drumbeat of Attacks Continues to Roil Post-Election Iraq
By TOM RAUM, AP
AFP/Getty Images
Of the 1,502 U.S. troop deaths in Iraq, at least 1,030 resulted from
hostile action, the military said.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (March 3) - The conflict in Iraq can be told in numbers
and milestones, from the more than 1,500 troops who now have died to
the number of weapons of mass destruction found - zero.
Two American soldiers died in Baghdad of injuries from a roadside bomb
and another was killed in Babil province south of Baghdad, the military
said on Thursday. That brought to 1,502 the number of U.S. troops who
have died since President Bush launched the invasion in March 2003,
according to an AP count.
There are other milestones, other important numbers, some reached, some
soon to be, as the conflict in Iraq nears its third year.
- Roughly 60,000 National Guard and Reserve troops are deployed in
Iraq. As of Wednesday, 300 had died there since the war began.
- May 1 will be the second anniversary of Bush's ''mission
accomplished'' aircraft carrier speech in which he announced an end to
major combat operations.
- The price tag is over $300 billion and climbing, including $81.9 more
just requested from Congress. The money also covers operations in
Afghanistan and the broader war on terror, but the bulk is for Iraq.
When Lawrence Lindsey, then chairman of Bush's National Economic
Council, predicted in September 2002 that the cost of war with Iraq
could range from $100 billion to $200 billion, the White House openly
contradicted him and said the figure was far too high. He was eased out
in a shake-up of Bush's economic team.
''Americans need to take note of these sorts of milestones because it's
a way to show respect for the sacrifices of troops and reassess
strategy,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst with the
Brookings Institution.
''But I'm much more interested in trends,'' he added, citing
indications pointing to the relative strength of the insurgency and
whether violence is declining or increasing.
On that, the signs are mixed.
The top U.S. general in the region said that about 3,500 insurgents
took part in election day violence in Iraq on Jan. 30, citing estimates
from field commanders. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid suggested the failure
to prevent millions of Iraqis from voting showed the insurgency was
losing potency.
''They threw their whole force at us, we think, and yet they were
unable to disrupt the elections because people wanted to vote,''
Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week.
But his comments came just a day after one of the biggest attacks by
insurgents since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003.
A suicide car bombing in the town of Hillah killed at least 125 people,
including dozens of recruits for Iraq's security forces.
From Jan. 1 until Iraq's election day, 234 people were killed and 429
people were injured in at least 55 incidents, according to an AP count.
Casualties rose in February, with 38 incidents resulting in at least
311 deaths and 433 injuries.
Meanwhile, the United States is losing some partners in its ''coalition
of the willing.''
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced this week that Ukraine
would withdraw its 1,650-strong military contingent by October. Poland
is withdrawing about a third of its 2,400 troops. Last year, Spain's
new Socialist government withdrew its 1,300 troops.
At the same time, Bush drew commitments during his visit to Europe last
week from all 26 NATO countries for contributions to NATO's training of
Iraqi security forces - either inside or outside Iraq or in cash.
Even harsh war critic France will send one officer to help mission
coordination at NATO headquarters in Belgium and has separately offered
to train 1,500 Iraqi military police in Qatar.
More than half of Americans remain convinced of the importance of
keeping U.S. troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized, though
polls suggest widespread doubts about the handling of the war and
Iraq's prospects. An AP-Ipsos poll in February found that 42 percent
approved of the president's handling of Iraq, while 57 percent
disapproved. A slight majority in recent AP-Ipsos polling expressed
doubts that a stable Iraq can be established.
Another milestone will come the day Iraq's security forces are
sufficiently trained and equipped to deal with the insurgency - and to
permit the United States to begin leaving.
There have been conflicting reports on this, too.
The administration says there are 140,000 ''trained and equipped''
Iraqi military, security and police officers.
But Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies, puts the number of Iraqi troops able to
stand up to serious insurgent attack at fewer than 20,000.
''Everything we do in Iraq will fail unless we develop a convincing
plan to create Iraqi forces'' able to defend their country without U.S.
help, Cordesman said.
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Armed Services
Committee, said some administration documents suggest that there are no
more than about 40,000 trained Iraq forces and that they are lightly
equipped.
''We've been given wildly different numbers of these security forces,''
Levin complained to Abizaid.
''Senator, the big question doesn't really have to do with numbers; the
question has to do with institution building,'' Abizaid responded. ''I
remind you ... that institution building takes a long time.''
''I agree,'' Levin said. ''But we shouldn't kid ourselves as to how
long it does take.''
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