Author: Mike Ewens

As blog readers may have noticed, there is a new blogger in the Antiwar.com ranks: Carol Watson. She has been an invaluable volunteer researcher for last six months. The Iraq Casualties page rarely misses an important story or statistic, and I give most of the credit for that to Carol. Here is her short autobiography:

I am a semi-retired researcher in the natural sciences who has now turned the focus of my research to aid the antiwar movement, a continuation of my involvement from during the Vietnam era. Having lived and worked for many years outside of the United States, I have acquired some insight into how the world sees us and our actions, and how we sometimes mistakenly view the rest of the world. A lifelong follower of libertarian principles, raised in New York City, I have spent my adult life in the deep South where I reside today.

We look forward to her keen insight and sharp eye for the web’s hard-to-find news stories.

Apparently, winning the peace will take a while:

Also Tuesday, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Iraq and said U.S. troops might stay in Iraq for one or two years.

‘About as far as we are looking is through the next couple of years,’ Myers said at Baghdad’s airport, where he addressed troops.”

The following email is circulating between war-supporters in an apparent attempt to refute the claims that the Iraqi occupation has become a quagmire. I thought that I would respond to each point made. My responses are the non-italic text.

Subject: Iraq a Success

This is for those who are discouraged at the constant bombardment of negative news about Iraq from the liberal, anti-Bush media, and also for those who just want to be critical for other reasons.

SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED AN END TO MAJOR COMBAT ON MAY 1: [319 US troops have died]

– the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.

The Daily Telegraph reports:
” About 300 of the 700 members in the first new Iraqi army battalion set up by the US-led coalition have resigned, a coalition official said today. ”

– over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.

Um, what security?

– nearly all of Iraq’s 400 courts are functioning.

Functioning as well as….? I assume this is a US gov’t “fact.”

–the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

Ahhh, as independent as the American appointed Iraqi Council?

–on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding
the pre-war average.

I thought we went to Iraq to “rid the world of Saddam and his WMD” not “bring power back to prewar levels.” Moreover, is this really an accomplishment when we remember that it was American bombs that created the lower power output? But I digress.

–all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

See above point. Simply, this is the way is was supposed to be, it is not an accomplishment per se. It is kind of like saying: “My local fire department put out a fire.” Yeah, so what?

– by October 1, Coalition forces had rehabbed over 1,500 schools – 500 more than their target.

Hmmm, why did they need rehab? Also, since when was US taxpayer money supposed to be used for foreign schools? I recommend you visit your nearest local inner city school to understand where gov’t money is truly needed.

– teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

So what? It is probably inflation.

–all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.

They better be.

–doctor’s salaries are at least eight times what they were under
Saddam.

High demand = high wage. Basic economics.

–95 percent of all pre-war bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.

Wait, the US military is spending my tax-money gathering these type of statistics? Just for that, I think I will disregard this point. And here’s some real economic freedom. Continue reading “Success in Iraq?”

Bush’s showy and controversial Thanksgiving Day flight to Baghdad has created a stir in Great Britain, where Air Force One — in its haste and demand for discretion — ignored international law:

Of more concern, air traffic controllers in Britain are seething over the flight, in which the president’s 747, falsely identified as a Gulfstream, traveled through British airspace. Prospect, the controllers union in the United Kingdom, says the flight broke international regulations, posed a potential safety threat and exposed a weakness in the air defense system that could be exploited by terrorists.

Updated 11/15/03 6:50 pm EST:
The death toll hit 418 today, with the downing of two Black Hawk helicopters in Mosul, killing at least 17, and the death of another GI in a roadside bombing. While the Black Hawk crash appears to be the result of a collision, witnesses report the collision took place as one copter was moving to escape enemy fire and Reuters (UK) reports:
One of the helicopters was hit in the tail by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG), a U.S. officer at the scene said on Saturday.

Central Command reports another death of a US soldier in Iraq:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A 1st Armored Division soldier died of wounds received when the convoy in which the soldier was riding struck an improvised explosive device (IED) approximately 8:20 a.m., Nov. 14, near central Baghdad.

The convoy was conducting a mounted patrol when it struck the IED. The deceased soldier was medically evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital, along with two other soldiers who received shrapnel wounds. At the 28th CSH, the soldier died of wounds this evening.

This death brings the US total to 400. As reported elsewhere, the death toll has surpassed that of the first three years of Vietnam and with Bush’s recent pronouncement that US troops would remain in Iraq until they capture or kill the “evildoers,” it is clear the that list of dead will only continue to increase. The president’s words indicate that the real threat — bin Laden — has been conveniently forgotten and relegated for more “pressing” ends:

“We are not pulling out until the job is done – period,” Mr Bush said.

Asked whether that included finding Saddam Hussein and bin Laden, Mr Bush said: “Yes, that’s part of it. But even bigger is a free and democratic society. That is the mission.”

If you would like to remind the world of the real cost of this never-ending war and fruitless crusade for world democracy, place a Antiwar.com casualty counter (see top right of this page) on your website. It is fairly easy:
1. Download this file and this file and place them in the same folder as the page that will display the counter.
2. Insert the code below where you want the counter to display:

As of today, the official wounded count stands at 2230. As usual though, gov’t numbers are untrustworthy. From the Stars and Stripes:

“It is unmistakable that Iraq is still a war zone,” Miller [R- NC visiting Landstuhl in Gernmany] said. He said there is an average of 35 attacks a day against soldiers and 95 percent of those soldiers survive their injuries, he said. . . . The delegation made a stop at the military hospital in Landstuhl, which has treated more than 7,000 injured and ill servicemembers from the Iraq war. The congressmen met with several injured soldiers, one whose arm had been amputated by a rocket-propelled grenade, and another who was injured by a homemade bomb.

It is unclear how many of the 7,000 are soldiers with illness unrelated to combat. Nonetheless, this number is significantly higher than anything reported elsewhere. The fact that these numbers involve only soldiers flown to Germany indicates that injuries are far from minor.

Finally, the Stars and Stripes again suggests that the official wounded number is dramatically deflated. An increased flow of wounded into Germany has created the need for a new staging area to care from them all:

The decision to build a new structure comes as the steady flow of patients from Iraq continues, with Landstuhl Regional Medical Center receiving an average of 44 patients a day.

A little bit of math shows that if this average goes back to, say May 1st, then the total number of wounded/ill is actually 8,000. Perhaps a phone call to CentCom will clear this up.

Thanks to CJ Watson for the leads.