U.S. troop losses plunge in Iraq

[robcon]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

The Pentagon reported 23 service members killed in combat this month as of Tuesday, noting that insurgent and other attacks have plunged in violence-prone places like Baghdad. As recently as May, as the Pentagon completed its "surge" of about 30,000 additional US forces and began military operations in more dangerous areas of Iraq, US combat deaths were five times as high, with 120 killed. This month, by contrast, the casualty rate is on par with that of March 2006, when 27 service members were killed. Since the beginning of the war, only a few months have seen fewer fatalities than this month, including February 2004, arguably the predawn of the insurgency in Iraq, when 12 US service members were killed.

Still, the number of US forces killed so far this year is a few dozen more than the total number killed in action during all of 2006. Yet the recent trend is a positive sign, officials and analysts say.

What makes it significant is that US forces in Iraq are still conducting operations, not "hunkering down" in the relative security of the many sprawling US bases.

"There is no other way to interpret it but as extremely good news," says Michael O'Hanlon, a senior analyst at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington.



Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1031/p01s01-usmi.html

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Can we declare victory, and get the hell out now?

[still_one]

1. agreed, time to bring them home /nt

[TwilightGardener]

2. May the trend keep up, until this disaster is over.

[harun]

3. Now bring them home (n/t)

[Hugin]

4. One is too many...

They still have a long way to go.

[onehandle]

5. The Surge is Working!

Bush's corporate friends' profits are at an all time high, paid by the American Taxpayer.

Mission Accomplished!

[hadrons]

6. So the "insurgents" aren't desparate anymore???

that's what the pro-invasion nitwits were saying when deaths were at an all-time high

[ClintonTyree]

7. They're biding their time....

the know the U.S. can't keep their present Troop levels there forever. When the U.S. "stands down" the "insurgents" will stand back up, believe me. They live there, they have time on their side. And what happens when the millions of Iraqi refugees return? The carnage will return to previous levels, if not more. These people have held grudges for hundreds of years. They're certainly not going to forget in a few months.

Bush can enjoy his temporary lull, but the shit WILL hit the fan again. He only hopes to be out of office by then so it becomes someone else's problem.

[Barrett808]

10. Also, air strikes have increased by 400% over last year

So we may assume the number of ground patrols is down.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. I don't know where they're getting 23 from

38 US troops died in Iraq in October. the Pentagon has not yet confirmed 6 (5 were killed in the last two days of the month), so that makes 32, and 10 so far were non-hostile, making it 22. It's fudging, to be sure. They have always lumped in non-hostile KIA's.

The notion that February 2004 was the "pre-dawn of the insurgency" is preposterous on its face. Eighty two Americans were killed in November 2003.

[lonestarnot]

9. Must be all the sitting it out while on patrol. Heh.

[SpikeTss]

11. Really?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3050313

[Barrett808]

12. Check it out: "US air strikes on Iraq are up by a factor of four in 2007 over 2006"

Juan Cole says:

Indeed, the sort of ground missions that might involve hand to hand fighting and high US casualties may have been replaced by air strikes against suspected insurgent targets. US air strikes on Iraq are up by a factor of four in 2007 over 2006, according to Newsay. The US launched 1,140 bombing missions in 2007 through the end of September, as opposed to 229 in all of 2006. The US has flown as many as 70 such air missions a day this October, more than at any time since the November, 2004, assault on the Sunni Arab city of Fallujah.

http://www.juancole.com/2007/10/us-troop-deaths-up-over-2006-air.html

[SpikeTss]

13. What saddens me

is that our mass media system actively and willingly avoids reporting these crimes
against the Iraqi population. Our media system is utterly useless. They are worse
than what was fed to people in totalitarian states.