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They Said This Is a Good Month
by James Glaser October 2, 2007 Somehow Washington and the Bush administration think that "only" a little over two American deaths a day in Iraq is progress. They say that September's US military death rate is the lowest in 13 months, but you can look at September's losses another way. September had a higher death rate for American troops than 25 other month's losses during George Bush's war in Iraq. The Bush administration also touts fewer Iraqi deaths, but right away I have to ask, who is doing the counting? If it is the Iraqi government, can we trust their numbers? If it is the Pentagon, I have to give the quote from them, "We don't do body counts." About the only reason any American has for believing the numbers for Americans killed is that they are verifiable. Even if we can't photograph them, we can count the coffins as they are returned to the States. If you take a look at the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, you will see that the number of wounded in September is still high. Does it really matter if 2.2 Americans are killed each day (September) or if 2.7 are killed each day (August)? For the loved ones of those Americans killed, even the loss of just one American can be devastating. What makes that loss even harder to take is George Bush playing the number game to make it look like things are going better in this horrible waste of a war. |
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