[Peace-discuss] Fwd: FCNL(11/05/03): Fatalities in Operation Iraqi Freedom

Thu Nov 6 09:38:41 CST 2003

>Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 16:56:03 -0500 (EST)
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>Subject: FCNL(11/05/03): Fatalities in Operation Iraqi Freedom
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>11/05/03
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>On May 1, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, under a banner declaring 
>"Mission Accomplished," President Bush declared that combat operations 
>were over in Iraq.  (The phrasing "major combat operations" reflects a 
>later White House addition.)  On that date, according to U.S. Central 
>Command, U.S. deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom totaled 138: 115 from 
>hostile action and 23 from accidents, illness, suicide, or undetermined 
>causes.
>
>Six months and three days later, the grim total reached 380 dead, 87 more 
>than died in the first Gulf War.  (This 380 does not include eight U.S. 
>civilians under contract to the Pentagon who have died.)  British armed 
>forces have suffered 52 fatalities since March 20, when the war 
>started.  Iraqi dead, military and civilian, are uncounted and may never 
>really be known, but recent estimates put the combined total at about 13,000.
>
>With better equipment and body armor, more soldiers are surviving injuries 
>from hostile action. U.S. Central Command reports 1,770 have been wounded 
>in combat since March 20, with another 340 suffering non-combat injuries. 
>However, the commander of the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, 
>Germany, the first stop for most troops wounded in Iraq, said the facility 
>had treated 7,701 U.S. military personnel since the Iraq war began (New 
>York Times, November 3, 2003).
>
>Daily attacks against U.S. forces have more than doubled since September, 
>from 15 to 33.  In press interviews and releases, White House and 
>Coalition Provisional Authority officials repeatedly claim that attacks by 
>regime die-hards and "foreign terrorists" are limited to the 100-mile 
>"Sunni triangle" encompassing Tikrit, Baghdad, Fallujah, and Ramadi.  Yet 
>further south, in the Shi'ite heartland, periodic - sometimes very bloody 
>- outbreaks of violence in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf frequently 
>occur against U.S. and Polish-led forces. Fewer incidents occur around 
>British-controlled Basra in the far south.  But just below 
>Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, violence against U.S. forces around Mosul 
>- including a series of closely coordinated attacks in late September - is 
>common.
>
>Every state and U.S. possession except Montana, Hawaii, West Virginia, and 
>U.S. Virgin Islands has suffered at least one fatality in this war (New 
>York Times, November 2, 2003).  Unlike Vietnam, the public will not see 
>the toll this war takes. Pentagon policy forbids media coverage of coffins 
>arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
>
>The killing on all sides will go on until control of affairs in Iraq is 
>returned to Iraqis, aided as needed by the UN and the international 
>community, and U.S. and British forces withdraw.  "Returning Iraq to 
>Iraqis" includes re-establishing security, reconstituting the economy 
>(particularly employment), and rebuilding the institutions of governance.
>
>U.S. FATALITIES IN OPERATIONS IN IRAQ
>
>Mar. 20-Apr. 30:   115 hostile; 23 non-hostile; 138 total
>May 1-Nov. 3:       139 hostile; 103 non-hostile; 242 total
>Mar. 20-Nov. 3:     254 hostile; 126 non-hostile; 380 total
>
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