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Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

In Iraq, Pace of U.S. Casualties Has Accelerated
(Vernon Loeb, Washington Post, December 28, 2003)
The number of U.S. service members killed and wounded in Iraq has more than doubled in the past four months compared with the four months preceding them, according to Pentagon statistics. . . . From Sept. 1 through Friday, 145 service members were killed in action in Iraq, compared with 65 from May 1 to Aug. 30. The two four-month intervals cover counterinsurgency operations, far costlier than major combat operations, which President Bush declared over on May 1. . . . Increases in those wounded in action have been equally dramatic this fall. Since Sept. 1, 1,209 soldiers have received battlefield wounds, more than twice the 574 wounded in action from May 1 through Aug. 30. . . . Nor have casualties tapered off since the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on Dec. 13. Through Friday, 12 service members were killed in action and 105 were wounded with Hussein in custody. . . . "The rate of casualties over the last four months is an indication that the insurgents are getting better organized," said retired Lt. Col. Andrew F. Krepinevich, director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. "The insurgents have been encouraged by the fact that they have had some success." . . . Americans are clearly growing weary of casualties. Washington Post-ABC News polling data from late March, during major combat operations, showed that 58 percent of Americans interviewed said they thought the number of casualties in Iraq was acceptable, with 34 percent saying the number was unacceptable. . . . The latest results, based on interviews conducted Dec. 18-21 with 1,001 randomly selected adults nationwide, indicate that those percentages have flipped, with only 33 percent saying the number of casualties is acceptable and 64 percent saying it is unacceptable. . . . support for the war could erode dramatically, defense analysts and public opinion experts said, if casualties continue at a relatively high rate next year and start to have the effect of undermining public confidence in the mission. . . . The number of soldiers wounded in action totaled 2,333, with an additional 370 injured in non-hostile circumstances. The total wounded in action in counterinsurgency operations, 1,783, is now more than three times the 550 wounded in action during major combat operations. . . . Peter D. Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University and an expert on war and public opinion, said continued casualties could reach a "tipping point" at which the Bush administration loses the most important element in public support for the war: a belief that success is likely. . . . A single event that causes a large number of U.S. casualties, such as the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, could push the public toward the tipping point, said retired Marine Lt. Col. Gary D. Solis, the Marine Corps' chief of oral history. . . . "We've never been as casualty-averse as either the politicians said or the military thought," Solis said, speaking for himself, not the Marine Corps. "But that can change in an instant." . . . a considerable number of casualties in Iraq have been from the Army Reserve and the National Guard, meaning that while they, too, volunteered to serve, they went to war directly from their homes in communities across America. . . . "The deaths of Guardsmen and reservists is likely to start hitting home in the near future," said Larry Johnson, a former CIA and State Department analyst with ties to U.S. military's Special Forces. "The deaths of comrades hit them harder and have a more damaging effect on unit morale."

posted by LoZo 11:55 AM