Najaf erupts as US death toll tops 600

22 August 2004

Fresh fighting broke out last night in the Shia holy city of Najaf as the US military announced the deaths of three more of its servicemen, bringing to more than 600 the number killed in Iraq since President George Bush declared major hostilities over. A Polish serviceman also died.

After a day of relative calm in Najaf, mortar, rocket-propelled grenade and machinegun fire resumed. Militiamen loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said they had shot down a pilotless American drone. There was no comment from US forces.

One American soldier was killed in a grenade attack in southern Baghdad, and the military authorities disclosed the deaths of two others on Friday in a roadside bombing near Samarra. The Polish soldier was killed and six wounded yesterday when a booby-trapped car exploded next to their convoy near the town of Hilla.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=553862

Welcome to Iraq Nam.

Kerry better extricate us, but quick, if he gets in office.

The more fighting that goes on, the fewer soldiers there are that get killed.

Indeed, judging by the falling numbers, some even appear to come back to life.

2004 RNC convention.

Anything to get a lower number.

when they handed over 'sovereignty' to the Iraqis.

It was "end of combat operations", the word major was edited in later when they realized the shit was still hitting the fan.

:wow: Need a broom to sweep away all the BS that gets flung around, eh?!

It's at 600 now.
Wasn't almost a thousand just a few days before?
Amazing, simply amazing, but somehow republicans have found a secret of getting dead back from their graves.

lies. The death toll has to be over 2,000 at least.

n/t

e then.

Also, all those who have died, died in Iraq.

There was an ariticle about how the DOD is happy with the great medical care our soldiers is getting. I can't refind that article. Anyway, the percentage of injured that have died is 6%, the best of any war we've ever fought. Several reports - none from DOD of course - say the injured number around 16,000. 6% of 16,000 = 960. Then there is still the problem of the reporter that got killed because he was working on the story about the mass graves in Iraq - of American soldiers. Not a word about that since he was killed. The actualy deaths of US solders in Iraq may be around 3,000.

I wonder how many of the innocent people have been killed in Iraq?
They don't count them.

They seem to be very trustworthy, at least as far as can be determined.

I'm amazed there isn't more screeming about the Iraqi death toll.

this is too important to just throw out a number.

Iraqi people don't count do they???

The US has proven time and again that the deaths of foriegners (especially non-white and non-christian) are completely unimportant. When I was trying to tell my fundie mother about the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who have been killed by US troops, she just said, "Well, they've killed a lot of ours." I asked her when and where. She said "9/11" and "our soldiers over there" - there was no point in talking to her. And I am afraid that a majority of Americans feel nothing in regards to the slaughter we have brought to Iraq.

used to be lunaville
\
edit: took the link out of the headline
it's http://icasualties.org/oif/


my homepage since the start of this mess.

dead, that is. Crippled & blinded is in the 1000's

I may throw a moajor league temper tantrum!

George Bush has GOT TO GO!

Send him to prison!

And I expect it to have soared to zero by the time the last American leaves after having won a MAJOR VICTORY for US arms.

The wonders of corporate-republican math. You can use it to claim that less soldiers are dead now than were dead two months ago; that keeping the tax rate the same is a tax increase; that slashing veterans' benefits is keeping them at the same level; and that hemmoraghing jobs by the millions is putting millions of people back to work. Oh, and that getting less votes than the other guy means you've won.

Well, good. If the Corporatists and their media cronies want to take us back to the Middle Ages, let them do it. Then the press will be forced to join a guild, and if they try to play this shoddy, dishonest, and crooked game then the guild will expel them and let them starve. You might wake up to find David Broder being dragged through the streets on a sled with a sign tied around his neck while the townsfolk pelt him with garbage and human waste. Oh, and there's always the Jacquerie. The blessings of medieval society cut both ways, mes chers.

we will not have lost a single soldier in iraq.

got their numbers from Paul Wolfowitz.

If Bush is going to tout the involvement of the "Coalition" troops, he has to take responsibility for their deaths, too.

icasualties.org counts 958 dead Americans, 65 dead from the UK, and 66 dead from the rest of the Coalition.

Inside the pockmarked entrance of Najaf's Imam Ali Shrine, there were no police to be seen on Friday afternoon.

Supporters of the rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr loafed on carpets in the pigeon-infested courtyard. A few smoked; others dozed. A couple of young students stood next to a makeshift infirmary; parked nearby was an empty pallet covered in blood.

"We haven't given up. This is a lie by the government," said Amar Al-Khaji, a 29-year-old civil engineer from Baghdad. "As you can see, we are still here."

Only hours earlier a senior Iraqi government official had claimed that Iraqi police had secured the shrine, apparently bringing to an end the two-week standoff with al-Sadr's militia. At least 400 Mehdi Army members had been arrested, and the bloodshed had ended.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=120810

600 deaths since he declared the war over is still quite a number, equally relevant to the full total, imo.

958+ US casualties...
1,089+ coalition casualties...
???+ private contractor casualties...
11,619+ Iraqi civilian casualties...

Given an Iraq population estimate of 25,374,691, the proportional equivalent of Iraqi civilian casualties applied to the US population would be 134,176 -- 44 times the death toll of "9/11."

Gee, I wonder why the people of Iraq have a growing hatred of us?

mosques in the whole world. Why is George Bu$h so determined to destroy it?




I can't imagine how beautiful it must be to be inside of this place. The whole place shimmers in light and gold. To destroy this place is a crime against all of humanity.

The Bushes backed and financed Hitler's plan for global conquest (including the "burying" of the United States in WWII).

The Bushes backed Saddam.

The Bushes backed Osama and the Saudis.

The Bushes backed Noriega.

WHY WOULD THEIR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY STOP AT THE GATES OF A HOLY SITE???

It was as predictable as the tides. Seen any flag-draped coffins on the news lately? Not since the pictures of flag-draped coffins was the news, and not the poor dead kids coming home in the box.

Vietnam was only fucked up on casualty reporting for a few months (late 1965). After the fiasco of the Army on notification of NOK during the bloody Ia Drang battles of mid-November 1965, that kind of thing opened up. Not this war. Not with the Bu$h regime. Casualties are TOP-SECRET CODE-WORD. EYES-ONLY info for the top Pentagon political staff and the White House upper echelons for filtration and political damage control. Nothing is as important as how things appear. What is seems; what seems is (who said that? Macbeth's witches?).

In many ways, including casualty reporting, tours of duty, abuse of reserve and guard units, the back-door draft, family and veteran benefits, and much more, the Iraq war - oh, did I mention illegality? - is much more fucked-up than Vietnam at it's worst.