In related developments: The monthly number of insurgents killed by US women have SKY ROCKETED!

ACE: a little off-topic (sorry 'bout that - I wanted to make damned sure you got a heads up) but have you seen THIS yet?

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/25/230207.shtml

Just thought you might find it interesting.... Michael Schiavo's lawyer contributed $$$ to Judge Greer. A little "conflict of interest" there maybe?

This is starting to finally make a little sense...

Uh, Ace... You do realize we're gonna be there through 2050 or so, right?

Oh No! That evil war in Iraq has stopped the Iraqis from telling racist jokes! What will Bushitler do next-destroy Poland?

Knight Ridder brings us news of this terrible tragedy.

What the fuck are they gonna find to bitch about next?

First of all, it looks like an average month in Iraq for US casualties .

second: I was embarassed for you when I read you say you couldn't vouch for his numbers. Anyone who cosiders themselves knowledgeable enough to opine about US casualty rates should be familiar with the monthly numbers. It's the least you, a war supporter, can do considering the pointless struggle you would commit our precoius troops to.

heres a link to more solid numbers.

Weve lost 30 men in the last 26 days. We lost 58 the month before that. 107 the month before that. The only two months with less losses are Feb. 04 (20 dead) and June 03 (30 dead)

I dont know the background of this site, but the numbers look solid to me.

Perhaps a better link.

Jri, before you start spouting your Democratic talking points, why don't you get your fucking facts straight. Looks like a pretty damn good trend. Whether you are for or against the war, anyone should share an optimism when things do trend downard. And they are.

Ace, here you go.

Bloodthirsty War Supporters don't get hysterical about casualty rates unless they are, you know, HIGH.
This has to be the most gained with the least cost of any war we have ever been in.

Our troops are precious. But not the way you think they are.

According to this site Coalition forces have captured 130 terrorists.

Its a Chinese site and I dont usually have too much faith in the counting ability of people who use abacus'.

I'm praying that the worst is over. We are now seeing that the Iraqi Sunni Insurgents are looking for a way to end their part of the war.
We are also seeing the Iraqi military and security forces taking an increasing share of the load. This should make it easier for both the Iraqi forces and the Coallition forces, people are less likely to fire on their own countrymen. Then there is the fact that Iraqi forces don't need translators, they know the language and culture. Often they're patrolling where they have friends and relatives.
The scary thing is the foreign fighters, the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians, Iranians and others. With a couple of exceptions like Iran and maybe Syria, they can't just give up and go home, nobody wants them. Nor are the Iraqis brimming with the desire to forgive and forget. Hunting them down and killing them is liable to be messy.
Still, it's a LOT easier to recruit new troops to the winning side than the losing side.

Jri:

Average month for Iraqi casualties? What you smokin' buddy.

Think again.

Jri is counted the wounded as well. Which is a valid point, but the number of deaths is way down and i think thats the most important thing.

Yeah, but the wounded and the dead are trending downward. So how's that jibe?

Just askin'

My figures are from icasualties as well, which I linked at my site. Since the time I wrote the post, three Americans have died.

Otherwise, we had lost 15 soldiers in 20 days, just as I said. In going through the previous months, I could not find a 20-day period with a lower rate, but admitted to the possibility I might have missed one (again, read the language at my site).

In any event and regardless of nits, the rate has for the moment plummeted. And there's no arguing abot that.

Not sure why my name didn't post.

Yo Ace-

You write:

"I can't vouch for that"

There are a lot of sites that have the statistics, including this one:

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Bottom line is that the numbers are getting much better. Insurgency is carne tostada.

W.C. Varones

this bs about number/kill-counts is so irrelevant - and reminds me of all the numbers hocus-pocus during vietnam. only an idiot would suggest that fewer casualties is synonymous with a more successful (winning) strategy. not that i want any more of our boys to die over there, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"only an idiot would suggest that fewer casualties is synonymous with a more successful (winning) strategy."

This isnt like Vietnam. In Vietnam we would say "sure we lost a lot of me, but the VC lost more, therfore we are winning." Here we have a situation where everyday our control of Iraq grows stronger and more secure which is shown by the decrease in attacks.

Guys, barring idiocy of monumental proportions (letting Dimocraps get their little dickbeaters back on the levers of power, for instance), we've already won Iraq. Everywhere you look (Blackfive's, just to name one) you see stories of insurgents dying by the dozens without even killing any of ours in return.

So they get lucky now and then, kill a couple dozen of ours. How many hundreds of theirs died to do it? This war is won, if we just stick with the winning strategery.

jri,

"I was embarrassed for you when I read you say you couldn't vouch for his numbers"

Hell, I'm mortified for you that you can't read a simple chart. Anyone who considers themselves knowledgeable enough to post critical comments should be familiar with the concepts of addition, mean, and great than/lesser than. The very link you cited literally contradicted you.

I think the least you can do, as a war critic, is buy a 3rd grade math textbook and brush up. To help you out, I'll point out that the fatality rate of less than one per day was only achieved in a single prior month in the past 2 years. Also, the 3 week casualty total of 92 is the best yet.

Is there more work to do? Of course. Also, literally every one of those deaths was a horiffic tragedy to that person's family and friends. Still, they can look on a fledgling democracy of around 25 million people and know that their sacrifice was anything but pointless.

It is not simply US costs, the Iraqi system is far more vulnerable. Still that doesn't seem to be getting hit harder.

So maybe...

... let's hope.

But not get too optimistic. Sunni groups seem to be in a state of semi negotiation, the forming government isn't forming and new conflicts could emerge or the rebllion restart.

As for the silly individual who got upset over a story on the state of ethnic jokes, if this is an accurate glimpse at tensions and trends in the society it is interesting news. Certainly the delay in government formation is leading to tensions, it is true that many kurds feel they have no great interest in a united Iraq and want maximum autonomy; some Sunni have certainly engaged in nasty activity; so if tensions rise between groups it could get ugly.

Let me see...

In World War II, Hitler was responsible for killing 40 million people including 6 million in concentration camps, and the US suffered 250,000 casualties freeing the world of an insane mass murder.

In Vietnam and Korea, we lost 100,000 soldiers fighting communism regimes which have been responsible for killing hundreds of millions of people.

Yet still, we've lost less than 2,000 brave and courageous US soldiers avenging the world trade center losses which killed over 3,000 innocent civilians, and disbanding terrorist regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that have killed and murdered hundreds of thousands innocent civilians through midnight roundups, roadside bombs, and illegal chemical/gas weapons.

Only an idiot or liberal would not say that our US military operation is a failure, specially when we have freed 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq from despotic tyrants. Not too mention attempted to spread democracy to a region denied human rights, which liberals could care less about.

Where is the liberal compassion? Sounds like liberals are murderous tyranical scums best friends.

Liberals are by far the biggest F__king hypocritical frauds in modern times. I guess that's what happens when people have a brain and don't use it.

xxx, Omni-truth