Is The Surge Really Succeeding?
by James Glaser
September 24, 2008

Last month 23 Americans were killed in Iraq, and so far this month another 19 have died. Is that what you would call success? So far this year, 269 American troops have been killed in Iraq.

Finding out about the number of our troops who were wounded is harder. I found the numbers I am going to use at the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count web page. Their numbers match the those of the Department of Defense. I used the ICCC numbers because they have more up to date numbers for troops wounded.

Since the beginning of this year, 2,064 Americans have been wounded, and the numbers do not appear to be going down. In just August alone, 303 of our troops were wounded.

If you are into averages, about 9 of our Soldiers or Marines are being killed or wounded every day. If you think most of them would have been from the beginning of the year, you would be wrong. In August, the last complete month we have all the numbers for, almost 11 of our troops were killed or wounded on average every day of that month.

Here is something else to think about. As recruitment gets harder, our military is getting older. Today they will let you join up if you are not older than 42.

This month (September) in the first 21 days, 18 of our troops were killed, and the surprise is that their average age was 32.5 years old. We usually think of the young, just out of high school Soldiers being killed, but now with the age over thirty, you have to know that more and more of our troops were most likely family men and women.

George Bush, John McCain, and almost everybody else in Washington have called our Troop Surge a success, but try to remember that today another 9 or so of our troops were killed or wounded, and the same will be true tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that.

You see, in Washington 9 or 10 casualties a day is now considered a success.

Post Script

You can find that Coalition Casualty Count web page by clicking on "American Military Deaths in Iraq" at the top of my web page. That link is supplied by Antiwar.com.

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