Death Toll

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Overall US Death Toll in Iraq Hits 4,000

Published: 3/24/08, 12:46 PM EDT

By KIM GAMEL

BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. officials said Monday they will press forward in the fight against extremists in Iraq a day after the overall U.S. death toll in the five-year conflict rose to 4,000.

The White House called the grim milestone "a sober moment" and said President Bush spends time every day thinking about those who have lost their lives in battle.

"He bears the responsibility for the decisions that he made," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "He also bears the responsibility to continue to focus on succeeding."

The American deaths came Sunday, the same day rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.

No group claimed responsibility for the Green Zone attacks, but suspicion fell on Shiite extremists based on the location of the launching sites.

The deaths of four U.S. soldiers in a roadside bombing about 10 p.m. Sunday in southern Baghdad pushed to 4,000 the number of American service members killed as the war enters its sixth year. Another soldier was wounded in the attack, the military said.

The Associated Press count of 4,000 deaths is based on U.S. military reports and includes eight civilians who worked for the Department of Defense.

"You regret every casualty, every loss," Vice President Dick Cheney said. "The president is the one that has to make that decision to send young men and women into harm's way. It never gets any easier."

An American military official in Baghdad said each U.S. death is "equally tragic" and underscored the need to keep up the fight.

"There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we," military spokesman Navy Lt. Patrick Evans said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

Last year, U.S. military deaths spiked as U.S. troops sought to regain control of Baghdad and surrounding areas. The death toll has seesawed since, with 2007 ending as the deadliest year for American troops at 901 deaths. That was 51 more deaths than 2004, the second deadliest year for U.S. soldiers.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians also have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, although estimates of a specific figure vary widely because of the difficulty in collecting accurate information.

One widely respected tally by Iraq Body Count, which collects figures based mostly on media reports, estimates that 82,349 to 89,867 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the conflict.

Overall attacks also have decreased against Iraqi civilians but recent weeks have seen several high-profile bombings, highlighting the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups.

The U.S. Embassy said two government employees - an American and a Jordanian - were seriously injured and six other people required medical attention after Sunday's volley of rocket attacks.

Local hospital and police officials said at least 12 Iraqis were killed and 30 more were wounded in rocket or mortar blasts that apparently fell short after being aimed at the Green Zone from scattered areas of eastern Baghdad.

The heavily fortified area has frequently come under fire by Shiite and Sunni extremists, but the attacks have tapered off as violence declined over the past year.

The attacks followed a series of clashes last week between U.S. and Iraqi forces and factions of the Mahdi Army, the biggest Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr has declared a cease-fire through mid-August to purge the militia of criminal and dissident elements, but the militia has come under severe strains in recent weeks.

Al-Sadr's followers have accused the Shiite-dominated government of exploiting the cease-fire to target the cleric's supporters in advance of provincial elections expected this fall and demanded the release of supporters rounded up in recent weeks.

Also Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki relieved the top two security officials in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, officials said. The move is a sign of growing concern about security in the nation's oil capital since British forces handed over control of the city last year.

Two Iraqi officials said the police chief of Basra, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of the city's joint military-police operation, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, have been replaced.

But the two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.

___

Associated Press writer Bushra Juhi contributed to this report, as did the AP News Research Center in New York.

[Guest]

[chimoku]

-

While involvment in Afhaganistan was justifiable . . . .the invasion into Iraq was a reckless venture and has resulted in this quagmire of death.

.

4000 American ,mostly young , lives cut short - for s senseless mission.

Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of physically and psychologically wounded - returning home, needing a great deal of care to regroup and stabilize in some way.

And we owe it to them.

.

And then lets us not forget about the families of the above: ALL of whose lives are profoundly impacted and grieved.

.

The death count continues to increase when we include the innocent Iraqi civilians tortured and murdered in their own country. -along with their police killed on or off duty, politcial leaders assassinated, and so on.

.

And a country that was once quite beautiful now destroyed.

Hate has sprung up where people of different religions (Christian, Jew, Muslim) could co-exist peacefully, even under the Hussein's dictatorship ( which is more that one say for many of the despotic dictaoriships that exist today around the world, that seemd not the perk Bush's moral conscience).

'.

The Iraqi economy is in shambles as are all of its infrastructures : education, the justice system, the medical system . . you name it.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH AMERICA !!

If it wasnt so darned tragic - it would be funny. I n the name of freedom . . how to destroy a country !

.

and surely when US troops leave- and they will be withdrawn under a Democratic president - the power vacuum will invite new chaos .

-

An acquaintance of mine -an Iraqi Christian lady - told me, that people in Iraq now live in terror.

.

Its become 'Iraq-nam' of the 21 century. ( And we haven't even begun to explor the $$$$ cost for the States)

-

A tragedy, in the fullest definition of that word.

Edited March 24, 2008 by chimoku

[heresyhunter]

4,000 lives of U.S. soldiers have now been lost. That's 4,000 too many. May the Lord wake this sleeping nation before it's too late.

-

While involvment in Afhaganistan was justifiable . . . .the invasion into Iraq was a reckless venture and has resulted in this quagmire of death.

.

4000 American ,mostly young , lives cut short - for s senseless mission.

Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of physically and psychologically wounded - returning home, needing a great deal of care to regroup and stabilize in some way.

And we owe it to them.

.

And then lets us not forget about the families of the above: ALL of whose lives are profoundly impacted and grieved.

.

The death count continues to increase when we include the innocent Iraqi civilians tortured and murdered in their own country. -along with their police killed on or off duty, politcial leaders assassinated, and so on.

.

And a country that was once quite beautiful now destroyed.

Hate has sprung up where people of different religions (Christian, Jew, Muslim) could co-exist peacefully, even under the Hussein's dictatorship ( which is more that one say for many of the despotic dictaoriships that exist today around the world, that seemd not the perk Bush's moral conscience).

'.

The Iraqi economy is in shambles as are all of its infrastructures : education, the justice system, the medical system . . you name it.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH AMERICA !!

If it wasnt so darned tragic - it would be funny. I n the name of freedom . . how to destroy a country !

.

and surely when US troops leave- and they will be withdrawn under a Democratic president - the power vacuum will invite new chaos .

-

An acquaintance of mine -an Iraqi Christian lady - told me, that people in Iraq now live in terror.

.

Its become 'Iraq-nam' of the 21 century. ( And we haven't even begun to explor the $$$$ cost for the States)

-

A tragedy, in the fullest definition of that word.

[MorningGlory]

.

Its become 'Iraq-nam' of the 21 century. ( And we haven't even begun to explor the $$$$ cost for the States)

-

A tragedy, in the fullest definition of that word.

I agree, chimoku. I used to support the war in Iraq....time has changed my mind though. That entire country is not worth the life of one American soldier, IMO; they don't want freedom and they hate us anyway. I've come to believe that George Bush Jr. was out to finish what his dad started. Saddam needed to go but it wasn't our job to do it. I can't wait until our military, whom I totally support, AND our tax dollars are back where they belong.

[buckthesystem]

My sister sent me that article by email, but she added at the end of it (not her words, they were in "quotes" but it wasn't clear where they came from - I assumed that it was part of the original article):

"What the government is doing is only counting the soldiers that die in action on the ground before they can get them into a hummer, helicopter or ambulance. Any soldier who is shot but they get into a vehicle before 'they die' is not counted."

[JustinM]

"What the government is doing is only counting the soldiers that die in action on the ground before they can get them into a hummer, helicopter or ambulance. Any soldier who is shot but they get into a vehicle before 'they die' is not counted."

Sounds like an unsubstantiated claim. A conspiracy theory.

How many here, have been to Iraq? Probably no one in this thread. How many of you have seen the progress and the relationships that the US Military has established with the Iraqis? Probably no one in this thread.

You don't know what you are talking about, so quit acting like you are experts on this.

4000 dead in 5 years. 800 a year. That's about 2.2 people a day. More people in the service die from accidents and training mishaps per year, than they do in Iraq. But, let's not forget to mention that most our fatalities happened prior to the troop surge. We have turned the tide of the war and you should be saluting our Generals for reducing our fatality rates, not deriding them.

http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=3609

http://www.murdoconline.net/archives/003564.html

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page...T20071112a.html

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf (see page 11)

You disagree with the war, fine, I get it, but until you have been there, you aren't seeing the whole picture. If you haven't been there, you most certainly do not have a qualified opinion on the matter.

[mikeinsarasota]

"What the government is doing is only counting the soldiers that die in action on the ground before they can get them into a hummer, helicopter or ambulance. Any soldier who is shot but they get into a vehicle before 'they die' is not counted."

Sounds like an unsubstantiated claim. A conspiracy theory.

How many here, have been to Iraq? Probably no one in this thread. How many of you have seen the progress and the relationships that the US Military has established with the Iraqis? Probably no one in this thread.

You don't know what you are talking about, so quit acting like you are experts on this.

4000 dead in 5 years. 800 a year. That's about 2.2 people a day. More people in the service die from accidents and training mishaps per year, than they do in Iraq. But, let's not forget to mention that most our fatalities happened prior to the troop surge. We have turned the tide of the war and you should be saluting our Generals for reducing our fatality rates, not deriding them.

http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=3609

http://www.murdoconline.net/archives/003564.html

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page...T20071112a.html

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf (see page 11)

You disagree with the war, fine, I get it, but until you have been there, you aren't seeing the whole picture. If you haven't been there, you most certainly do not have a qualified opinion on the matter.

You don't have to be there on the ground to know it was wrong and illegal to be there in the first place, and we shouldn't be there any longer. The daily life of Iraqis is much worse now than when Saddam was in power. I guess we don't think they need electricity and plumbing. That's McDemocracy for you. Just because you didn't see Jesus resurrected with your own eyes doesn't mean you don't have a qualified opinion, or does it?

[Ovedya]

You don't have to be there on the ground to know it was wrong and illegal to be there in the first place, and we shouldn't be there any longer. The daily life of Iraqis is much worse now than when Saddam was in power. I guess we don't think they need electricity and plumbing. That's McDemocracy for you. Just because you didn't see Jesus resurrected with your own eyes doesn't mean you don't have a qualified opinion, or does it?

Firstly, the war was not/is not illegal.

Secondly, to know that the daily life of the average Iraqi is worse now than when Saddam was in power, you would have to have lived there then and now, or at least you would have to have concrete proof of that (I would think that living in constant fear of Saddam's death squads would be a little more worrisome than a few power outages and sewage problems).

Finally, you cannot compare a subjective experience such as salvation; and faith being the substantiation of that experience, with a completely objective situation. As believers we know that Christ lives within us because we have experienced Him. And we know the power of His resurrection because we have experienced it. We therefore are qualified to testify of such experiences. As one who merely observes from the outside the situation in another part of the country, you are not qualified to factually comment on the situation of the people of Iraq. Given the choice between one who has been there - seen the situation with his own eyes and one who merely takes in the filtered (MUCH FILTERED) and bias new reports here in the States, I'll take report from the one who has been there.

[mikeinsarasota]

sorry double posted

Edited March 25, 2008 by mikeinsarasota