Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Cornered?
PowerLine, Instapundit, and a smattering (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) of other blogs are hailing the "turning of a corner" in Iraq based in part on a Moonie Times report, Pentagon begins to see Iraq momentum shift.
From the WashTimes article,
An analysis by Reuters shows that U.S. combat deaths in March so far have averaged barely one per day, the lowest figure since February 2004.
Well, in itself that's great.
But to put it in perspective, although that February 2004 figure was the lowest monthly yet, two months later in April 2004, we had the most military fatalities in a single month: 135.
This month's grim statistics so far show a downward trend over the last three months, but again, three month downward trends also started in March 2003 (the first month of the war), July 2003, and April 2004. Such trends are certainly things to welcome, but not an indication that a "corner has been turned" - unless one is willing to add, "Just like the three corners we turned before! Hey, that might put us right back where we started!"
That's not the half of it though. The next paragraph of the article offers a possible explanation of this downward trend,
"They're clearly going after Iraqi security forces more," Army Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, said earlier this month. "That's kind of a steady thing. And the attacks against coalition actually have dropped off."
The corner being turned is that there's more attacks on Iraqi forces and less on American forces? If that's something to gladly welcome, the welcoming parties should be advocating for a complete pullout - that way none of our troops would be attacked! Neither they nor I think an immediate pullout is wise, yet this Moonie Times report is somehow good news to them. Looking at the deaths to non-coalition forces during the time the article was being prepared,
- In two separate attacks in Baghdad, insurgents gunned down a police chief and his bodyguard, detonated a roadside bomb killing one policeman and wounding five. Bodygards for an Iraqi government official appear to have launched an attack on unarmed protesters,
Violence persisted Sunday, with bodyguards for Science and Technology Minister Rashad Mandan Omar firing on a crowd of protesters in front of the ministry's offices demanding their full wages, said Hamid Balasem, an engineer at the ministry. About 50 ministry guards were demonstrating, saying they had only been paid in part, Balasem said. It was unclear why the minister's bodyguards opened fire.
- Forty miles southwest of Baghdad in Babil, seven civilians were killed by a bomb hidden in a bicycle basket.
- In Musayyib, forty miles south of Baghdad, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed two policemen and three civilians.
- In Baquba, forty miles north of Baghdad, gunmen killed three members of the Badr Organization - a the formerly the Badr Bridage - armed faction of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The same article lists and Iraqi soldier killed in Baqouba, another in Dhuluiyah, another in Balad, and four policemen in Tal Afar. All today's victims of the insurgency.
- And all victims were killed as firefighters extinguished the flames of the pipeline transporting oil from Iraq into Turkey after it was again sabotaged just days after having been repaired from the last attack.
That's fifteen deaths to non-American security forces during the 24 hours preceding the article's time of publishing, plus ten or so civilian deaths. There haven't been a lot of days we've lost more than 15 troops of our own. What a corner indeed.
// posted by Erik @ 3/29/2005 12:34:00 AM
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