81, 76, 50, 49, 43, 25
What are these numbers? This week’s Powerball winners? A safe deposit combo? New numbers to torment those poor b*stards stranded on the island in Lost?
No, they’re the number of troops that have died in hostile actions in Iraq for each of the past six months. That last number represents the lowest level of troop deaths in a year, and second-lowest in two years.
But it must be that the insurgency is turning their assault on Iraqi military and police, who are increasingly taking up the slack, right?
215, 176, 193, 189, 158, 193 (and the three months before that were 304, 282, 233)
Read the rest.
Every death is tragic and it's important to note that the number is dropping all the time.
Suprisingly, the Washington Times has this misleading article up today with this headline:
April among deadliest in Iraq for U.S.
April is becoming one of the deadlier months for U.S. troops in Iraq, perhaps dashing the hopes of commanders that a three-month-long downward trend in fatalities meant the insurgency was becoming less effective.
In the first four days of this month, 16 Marines and Army soldiers have been killed by hostile fire or in accidents, about half the total in all of March.
Note the "or in accidents". I say misleading because half of that number were either killed or missing from one accident alone.
In another part of Anbar Sunday, a flash flood flipped a seven-ton troop transport truck, killing five Marines and wounding one, the military said today. Two Marines and one Navy corpsman also went missing, officials said. It was one of the deadliest military accidents this year.
So, this won't dash the hopes of commanders that the insurgents are losing and we're winning.
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