Perhaps you can recall way back on July 8, 2005 when Maj. Gen. William Webster, head of the 30,000 U.S. and foreign troops and 15,000 Iraqi soldiers known as Task Force Baghdad announced triumphantly, via a video-teleconference interview from Baghdad, that the insurgency in the Baghdad area under his control had been all but vanquished. “The ability of these insurgents to conduct sustained high-intensity operations, as they did last year — we’ve mostly eliminated that”, proclaimed the general in his widely covered press conference.
So how did the good Major General do in July?
The following statistics are based on my hand tabulation of incidents and numbers compiled by Iraq War Casualties and Iraq Body Count. They are imperfect since no one compiles statistics for the Baghdad area, but they are reasonably accurate.
- Overall U.S. military casualties in Iraq declined by 35% from June 2005 to July 2005, from 75 to 51, but U.S. military casualties for the area covered by Task Force Baghdad increased by 28% from 18 to 23.
- The 23 Baghdad area U.S. military casualties in July represent the fourth highest monthly total for that area since the war began.
- Over-all since the war began 21% of U.S. military casualties have been suffered in the geography covered by Task Force Baghdad. In July 45% of U.S. military casualties were suffered there – the highest percentage of any month since the war began.
- Regarding the insurgency, there were at least 32 roadside bombings or car bombs in the Baghdad area in July – up from 17 in June.
- There were at least 321 Iraqi deaths related to the insurgency (mostly civilian) in the Baghdad area in July – up from 217 in June.
So where has the media been since Maj. General Webster made his dramatic pronouncement?
On July 14, Newsday, in a syndicated story, mentioned Webster’s boast in the ninth paragraph, but made no attempt to measure how his prediction of a relatively quiet Baghdad was turning out. According to Google News, not one story has been generated in the mainstream media that examined the accuracy of the General’s widely covered July 8th forecast.
