The United States military suffered four fatalities in Iraq Saturday, bringing the to-date total of U.S. military dead to 2,142. That number represents another grim milestone that President Bush failed to mention yesterday in a Minneapolis speech in which he claimed yet again that “steady progress is being realized.”
It was less than two months ago, On October 25th, that the United States military suffered its two-thousandth fatality in Iraq. But think back to May 1, 2003. That was the the date President Bush, bedecked in his green flight suit and white helmet, landed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, disembarked from a Navy S-3B Viking fighter jet, and declared amid the backdrop of a very large banner that read “Mission Accomplished,” that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”
As of that date the United States military had suffered 140 fatalities in Iraq. That was 2,002 fatalities ago. Yes…
WE HAVE NOW SUFFERED 2,002 U.S. MILITARY FATALITIES IN IRAQ SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” AMID MUCH POMP AND CEREMONY! (93.5% OF OUR CASUALTIES TO-DATE HAVE OCCURED SINCE OUR PRESIDENT DECLARED THAT WE HAD “WON” THE WAR)
That statistic alone should give us pause, but the trends belie the president’s daily assurances that we are making progress.
While President Bush admonishes us to “stay the course” in Iraq, our “coalition partners” don’t seem to be getting the message. At least twenty-four of our former “partners” have withdrawn all of their troops. The statistics prove that this is becoming more and more an “American” war:
- 80.9% of “coalition” casualties in Iraq were Americans from the start of hostilities on March 20, 2003 until “Mission Accomplished” on May 1, 2003.
- 85.2% of “coalition” casualties in Iraq were Americans from May 2, 2003 through the end of the year.
- 89.9% of “coalition” casualties in Iraq were Americans in 2004.
- 92.5% of “coalition” casualties in Iraq were Americans between January 1, 2005 and September 18, 2005.
- 97.9 of “coalition” casualties in Iraq since September 19, 2005 (when fatalities began to spike after several months of relative calm) have been Americans (244 “coalition” fatalities, of which 239 have been Americans).
Data calculated using statistics found at IraqCoalitionCasualties.org*.
More below the fold:
U.S. military fatalities in Iraq are also pacing ahead of last year. Year-to-date through December 9, 2005 we have suffered 808 U.S. military casualties in Iraq versus 802 through the same date last year. Over the same periods our “coalition partners” fatalities have declined from 57 in 2004 to 51 in 2005.*
And finally some other grim statistics that I cannot vouch for, but that were cited by John McGlaughlin on his program, the McGlaughlin Group, on December 2, 2005:
“U.S. military dead in Iraq, including suicides, 2,125; U.S. military amputeed, wounded, injured, mentally ill, all now out of Iraq, 49,500; Iraqi civilians dead, 118,900.”
Yesterday in Minneapolis the president said: “We’re there for one reason, and that is to achieve a victory to make America more secure.”
The president’s “victory” seems anything but assured. Meanwhile the grim statistics of American and Iraqi dead and maimed keep piling up with no end in sight.
