Two more U.S. troops die in Iraq

[diplomats]

I found this buried in this story on forces capturing an Iraqi Republican Guard dude. Has this been on the news?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030723/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_1070

[wuushew]

1. current count

American Fatalities in Iraq as of July 22, 2003

Since May 1st: 94
In combat: 39

Total US Casualties: 229
In combat: 153

[pw]

2. "Combat" casualties are narrowly defined

So if, for example, a vehicle goes off the road because people are shooting at it, that's a "traffic accident".

[July]

3. May 1st, "dead in combat"

I was checking the body count at http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx -- I think it's called Iraq Body Count. Lists 3 time periods: 3/20 -4/9 (day the big Saddam statue was killed); 4/10 - 5/1 (post-statue to * dress-up day on carrier); and 5/2 - 7/23 (post dress-ups to today). It's got a simple chart with total dead, US dead, UK dead, average # dead per day breakdowns. No combat vs. noncombat, which is, to me, the most cynical way of trying to minimize just how much blood is on certain hands and the most disrespectful way to treat those who died BECAUSE THEY WENT TO WAR.

Anyway, I added up the second two time period nos. for US dead, reasoning that the war more or less ended with the statue murder (oops, I mean "the fall of Baghdad") (a conclusion borne out by a significant drop in the per day averages of the dead, from 7 per day during period 1, to 1 and 1.3 per day in periods 2 and 3). Guess what?

US dead from 3/20 - 4/9 (statue day): 117

US dead since then until today: 118

More have died since we "gained control" than during the 3-week war, attack, or whatever the best word for it is (nominations, anyone).

BTW, the no. of US dead since Dress-up Day is 96. Check the site for UK nos. and totals.

Sorry, can't seem to create a proper link.

[bluestateguy]

4. It was buried

I think for 2 reasons:

1) Overshadowed by the Saddam sons thing

2) Tragically, these things are becoming more common which will cumulatively reduce their newsworthiness as time goes by. That's what conservatives want, witness the comparisons of waritme casulties to routine car crashes by Rush Limbaugh, and Ken Adelman's suggestion that such casulties are "militarily insignificant".

[JustJoe]

5. Another horror lost

in these death statistics are the many terrible injuries
that do not kill, suffered by both Americans & Iraqis.