U.S. Troops Death Toll Mounts as Iraq Danger Persists (Reuters)

U.S. Troops Death Toll Mounts as Iraq Danger Persists
Fri Sep 3, 2004 04:40 PM ET
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military death toll in Iraq is approaching 1,000, with the danger faced by American troops undiminished in the two months since the formation of an interim government.

The United States transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on June 28, officially ending the occupation. But more than 137,000 U.S. troops and 23,000 allied foreign soldiers remain in Iraq protecting Allawi's government and fighting a persistent insurgency that has left much of the country a battleground.

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"The hand-over to the Iraqis of political authority had virtually no impact on the military balance," said retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, a Boston University international relations professor.

"It didn't make the forces of order substantially stronger because Iraqi government forces did not somehow materialize instantly just because there was a new government. We basically have the same number of forces, mostly U.S. forces, and the same number, if not a larger number, of insurgents."
More ...

http://tinyurl.com/3l9q9

There have been 1,110 coalition deaths, 979 Americans, 65 Britons, six Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, one Estonian, one Hungarian, 19 Italians, one Latvian, 10 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and eight Ukrainians, in the war in Iraq as of September 2, 2004 (Graphical breakdown of casualties). The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose families have been notified of their deaths by each country's government. At least 6,916 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. The Pentagon does not report the number of non-hostile wounded. This list is updated regularly.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/

And the beat goes on ...

no Americans lost their lives in the hell that is now Iraq. I know that is actually not the case, but that the bush* administration and the media can actually pull this macabre farce off is astounding. Not to mention it says a LOT about the mentality of a very large section of the population.