U.S. Iraq war casualties reach new milestone

[Diomedes]

TrollJoel, workin' the boards when he should be signing up to go to fight in Iraq.  *sigh*

In other news:

At least 50,000 Iraqis have died by violence since U.S. invaded.

The toll, which is dominated by civilians but likely also includes some security forces and insurgents, is daunting: Proportionately, it is as if 600,000 Americans had been killed nationwide during the past three years. In the same period, at least 2,521 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq.

That includes deaths caused by "smart" bombs, IEDs, Humvees running people over, corporate mercenaries shooting anyone in their way, rampant street violence, assasinations by insurgents, by-standers caught in the cross fire, scared U.S. troops killing anyone comes anywhere near a checkpoint, family feuds, etc.

The Health Ministry gathers numbers from hospitals in the capital and the outlying provinces. If a victim dies at the hospital or arrives dead, medical officials there will issue a death certificate. Relatives will claim the body directly from the hospital and arrange for a speedy burial according to Muslim beliefs.

If the morgue receives a body - usually those which are deemed suspicious deaths - officials there issue the death certificate.

Health Ministry officials said that because death certificates are issued and counted separately, the two data sets are not overlapping.

The Baghdad morgue received 30,204 bodies from 2003 through mid-2006, while the Health Ministry said it had documented 18,933 deaths from what were described as military clashes and terrorist attacks between April 5, 2004, and June 1, 2006. Taken together, the violent death toll reaches 49,137. However, samples obtained from local health departments in other provinces show an undercount that brings the total number well beyond 50,000.

The documented cases show a country descending further into violence.

At the Baghdad morgue, the vast majority of victims have been shot execution-style. Many show signs of torture - drill holes, burns, missing eyes and limbs, officials there say. Others have been strangled, beheaded, stabbed or beaten.

The morgue records show a predominantly civilian toll; the hospital records gathered by the Health Ministry do not distinguish among civilians, combatants and security forces.

But Health Ministry records do differentiate among causes of death. Almost 75 percent of those who died violently were killed in what were classified as "terrorist acts," typically bombings, the records show. The other 25 percent were killed in what were classified as "military clashes." A health official described the victims as "innocent bystanders," many of them shot by Iraqi or American troops, caught in crossfire or shot accidentally at checkpoints. There are few demarcations or front lines in Iraq, and some of the dead might have been insurgents or militia members.

Cross this figure against the count at www.iraqbodycount.com (which does not report insurgent deaths) and you get at least 40k civilians dead by violence.  George Bush's war has made the Saddam years look like the Halcyon days of old.  If the U.S. had secured the peace--as was their graven duty--the innocent casualties would be much, much fewer.  But they completely failed at/ignored this responsibility.  The result is that the whole country is essentially the Wild, Wild Middle East, where the law men survive only because the criminals haven't gotten to them yet.  You can just murder someone in the street and basically no one will stop you, pursue you, or investigate what happened afterwards.

Of course, this figure says nothing of those refugees who died because of disease, starvation, exposure.

And of course,  of course, most of you don't give a shtein about Iraqi civilians.  Hell, the only reason many of you even know how many U.S. soldiers have been killed is this thread.  You're welcome.

[Drunkmasterflex]

There was a good article in Time the other week about AMZ and how before he was killed he was more obssessed with killing Iraqi civilians than American military.  His belief was that muslims that didn't follow his line of thinking were worse than non-believers.  I don't know if any of you have seen the cover of that magazine but it was awesome, it had AMZ on the cover with a big red X on his face.

[Diomedes]

June 29, 2006
Iraq War Ends Silently for One American Soldier
By DEXTER FILKINS
RAMADI, Iraq, June 28 — A soldier was dead, and it was time for him to go home.

The doors to the little morgue swung open, and six soldiers stepped outside carrying a long black bag zippered at the top.

About 60 soldiers were waiting to say goodbye. They had gathered in the sand outside this morgue at Camp Ramadi, an Army base in Anbar Province, now the most lethal of Iraqi places.

Inside the bag was Sgt. Terry Michael Lisk, 26, of Zion, Ill., killed a few hours before.

In the darkness, the bag was barely visible. A line of blue chemical lights marked the way to the landing strip not far away.

Everyone saluted, even the wounded man on a stretcher. No one said a word.

Sergeant Lisk had been standing near an intersection in downtown Ramadi on Monday morning when a 120-millimeter mortar shell, fired by guerrillas, landed about 30 paces away. The exploding shell flung a chunk of steel into the right side of his chest just beneath his arm. He stopped breathing and died a few minutes later.

The pallbearers lifted Sergeant Lisk into the back of an ambulance, a truck marked by a large red cross, and fell in with the others walking silently behind it as it crept through the sand toward the landing zone. The blue lights showed the way.

From a distance came the sound of a helicopter.

Death comes often to the soldiers and marines who are fighting in Anbar Province, which is roughly the size of Louisiana and is the most intractable region in Iraq. Almost every day, an American soldier is killed somewhere in Anbar — in Ramadi, in Haditha, in Falluja, by a sniper, by a roadside bomb, or as with Sergeant Lisk, by a mortar shell. In the first 27 days of June, 27 soldiers and marines were killed here. In small ways, the military tries to ensure that individual soldiers like Sergeant Lisk are not forgotten in the plenitude of death.

One way is to say goodbye to the body of a fallen comrade as it leaves for the United States. Here in Anbar, American bodies are taken first by helicopter to Camp Anaconda, the big logistical base north of Baghdad, and then on to the United States. Most helicopter traffic in Anbar, for security reasons, takes place at night. Hence the darkness.

In the minutes after the mortar shell exploded, everyone hoped that Sergeant Lisk would live. Although he was not breathing, the medics got to him right away, and the hospital was not far.

"What's his name?" asked Col. Sean MacFarland, the commander of the 4,000-soldier First Brigade.

"Lisk, sir," someone replied.

"If he can be saved, they'll save him," said Colonel MacFarland, who had been only a few yards away in an armored personnel carrier when the mortar shell landed.

About 10 minutes later, the word came.

"He's dead," Colonel MacFarland said.

Whenever a soldier dies, in Iraq or anywhere else, a wave of uneasiness — fear, revulsion, guilt, sadness — ripples through the survivors. It could be felt on Monday, even when the fighting was still going on.

"He was my best friend," Specialist Allan Sammons said, his lower lip shaking. "That's all I can say. I'm kind of shaken up."

Another soldier asked, "You want to take a break?"

Specialist Sammons said, "I'll be fine," his lip still shaking.

Sergeant Lisk's friends and superiors recalled a man who had risen from a hard childhood to become someone whom they counted on for cheer in a grim and uncertain place.

"He was a special kid," Specialist Sammons said. "He came from a broken home. I think he was divorced. I'm worried that it might be hard to find someone."

He said he would write a letter to the family — to whom it was not clear just yet.

Hours later, at the landing zone at Camp Ramadi, the helicopter descended. Without lights, in the darkness, it was just a grayish glow. With its engines still whirring, it lowered its back door.

The six soldiers walked out to the chopper and lifted Sergeant Lisk's body into it. The door went back up. The helicopter flew away.

The soldiers saluted a final time.

In the darkness, as the sound of the helicopter faded, Colonel MacFarland addressed his soldiers.

"I don't know if this war is worth the life of Terry Lisk, or 10 soldiers, or 2,500 soldiers like him," Colonel MacFarland told his forces. "What I do know is that he did not die alone. He was surrounded by friends.

"A Greek philosopher said that only the dead have seen the end of war," the colonel said. "Only Terry Lisk has seen the end of this war."

The soldiers turned and walked back to their barracks in the darkness. No one said a word.

From today's NYT.

[Diomedes]

The count for U.S. soldiers killed is now 2,560.  Have a nice weekend.

[JTrotter Fan]

Thanks statboy.

[ice grillin you]

pretty sad and disturbing article....i guess the liberal media coverage of the war is being replaced by liberal troop coverage of the war

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601666_pf.html

[ice grillin you]

i cant find it online but reporter jeffery gettleman writes a fantastic and heartbreaking piece in GQ magazine regarding the botched reconstruction of iraq after several extended stays in baghdad

"the city of a million ways to die"

buy the magazine...with justin timberlake on the cover...its more than worth it

[Diomedes]

2,582 U.S. Soldiers killed in Iraq so far. 

[Phanatic]

Top generals say Iraq is on the brink of civil war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060803/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_15

[Rome]

And Bush will go right on ignoring them just like he ignores scientists in his own administration who scream about global warming, stem cell research, etc., etc...

Wake me up when it's over...

[reese125]

Many voters have tired of the 3-year-old war, which has cost more than 2,500 U.S. lives and more than a quarter trillion taxpayer dollars.

unreal.

[MadMarchHare]

Top generals say Iraq is on the brink of civil war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060803/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_15

This whole civil war thing cracks me up.  I know, let's ignore the real problem, that there is absolutely no control over the situation in Iraq, and debate whether it's an "insurgency" or a "civil war".  Yeah, solving the semantics will make all the war go away.  iceholes.

[reese125]

when will they realize that those people over there are completely insane and nobody but them can control thier own gov't? we are seriously pissing in the wind and more lives will continue to fall for a VERY long time IMO.

[MadMarchHare]

Most of them are not insane.  Sure there are a few loonies out there (like Bin Laden) but most of them think they are fighting a war in God's honor.  Much like Bush does (or claims to).  That dismissive attitude, shared by most Westerners, is a huge part of the problem.  That attitude says Israel is perfectly within it's rights to kill women and children in Lebanon because Hezbollah might be in the vicinity.

Attitudes on both sides need to be changed for this to end effectively.  The combat is just filling the time until that can happen, or the first nuke is dropped.

[Rome]

Thinking you're fighting a war in God's name = insane, dude.

Fighting a war for independence, territory, or oil or other natural resources is one thing, but warring in the name of God is absurd.

I'm pretty sure I read that in some holy book once.