I'm sure everyone will be happy to read that the number of Americans and Iraqis killed in the violence there has shown another decrease. Since this hadn't made much of a splash in the evening news, I thought maybe some folks might be interested in the reported recent developments and trends. The Washington Post, a well recognized right-wing mouthpiece for the President, has noted the decrease in casualties in a recent editorial.
washingtonpost.com
To quote from the Post:
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"A congressional study and several news stories in September questioned reports by the U.S. military that casualties were down. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), challenging the testimony of Gen. David H. Petraeus, asserted that "civilian deaths have risen" during this year's surge of American forces.
A month later, there isn't much room for such debate, at least about the latest figures. In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006, according to the Web site icasualties.org. The Iraqi Health Ministry and the Associated Press reported similar results."
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I'm not a big believer that casualty numbers are a good metric for judging the state of progress in Iraq, but most people appear to believe that the body count is somehow significant in charting progress. I expect now these people will be full of kudos for our policies there.
What is especially noteworthy is that both US and Iraqi casualties are lower now than they were a year ago. Compared to a year ago, we have more Americans deployed (which some pundits said would only increase the number of targets available for extremists) and these troops are more exposed than a year ago-fewer are hunkered down in fortified strongholds, more are in the suburbs working directly with Iraqi security forces. Some believed that these two factors would have increased the number of Americans who were killed or wounded, but that has not happened. Instead, the numbers have decreased and the results on the ground have improved.
There's still a very long way to go--the Iraqi government is weak and not as effective as we would like, extremist elements of all stripes could launch a single simple but horrific attack tomorrow and kill hundreds. Nonetheless, as the daily news showers us with the obligatory 25 seconds of gore or the latest snippet intended to generate outrage or sell papers, it's important to see the forest for the trees, and to relish positive developments as we all (in the US and in Iraq) work to address the many remaining challenges.
washingtonpost.com
To quote from the Post:
****************
"A congressional study and several news stories in September questioned reports by the U.S. military that casualties were down. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), challenging the testimony of Gen. David H. Petraeus, asserted that "civilian deaths have risen" during this year's surge of American forces.
A month later, there isn't much room for such debate, at least about the latest figures. In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006, according to the Web site icasualties.org. The Iraqi Health Ministry and the Associated Press reported similar results."
***********************
I'm not a big believer that casualty numbers are a good metric for judging the state of progress in Iraq, but most people appear to believe that the body count is somehow significant in charting progress. I expect now these people will be full of kudos for our policies there.
What is especially noteworthy is that both US and Iraqi casualties are lower now than they were a year ago. Compared to a year ago, we have more Americans deployed (which some pundits said would only increase the number of targets available for extremists) and these troops are more exposed than a year ago-fewer are hunkered down in fortified strongholds, more are in the suburbs working directly with Iraqi security forces. Some believed that these two factors would have increased the number of Americans who were killed or wounded, but that has not happened. Instead, the numbers have decreased and the results on the ground have improved.
There's still a very long way to go--the Iraqi government is weak and not as effective as we would like, extremist elements of all stripes could launch a single simple but horrific attack tomorrow and kill hundreds. Nonetheless, as the daily news showers us with the obligatory 25 seconds of gore or the latest snippet intended to generate outrage or sell papers, it's important to see the forest for the trees, and to relish positive developments as we all (in the US and in Iraq) work to address the many remaining challenges.
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