Jules Crittenden has some interesting casualty numbers from Iraq. They're interesting not because they somehow disagree with figures for the deaths of U.S. troops or Iraqi civilians in Iraq, but because numbers like this have not shown up in any story about Iraq in the reporting of any major news organization (including that redoubt of "conservative" journalism, Fox News). They are figures for the number of terrorists killed or wounded in Iraq since January of this year:
Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite militias (all funded, trained and supplied by Iran and/or its proxy, Syria) are no match for the American military, and numbers like this prove it. There is no way the United States can lose this war militarily. The only way we can lose is if we lose the political will to continue fighting. The terrorists, as well as Iran and Syria, have recognized this and have carried out attacks designed to have maximum political, not military, impact, and they have succeeded in undermining support for a war that, by any objective measure, the United States cannot lose. What is unfathomable is that most of the American media and many political figures in the United States have either fallen for this gambit or used it to further their own political ends to the detriment of the American war effort. Also, for reasons stated here, I think this has had the ironic effect of increasing civilian casualties in Iraq.
Hat Tips: The Corner, Instapundit
Chuck Simmins of TDW had been toiling away diligently, recording the deaths of terrorists as reported by MNF-I flaks. Turns out, they weren’t reporting them all. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno had a press conference recently, largely ignored by the press, in which he reported 3,184 terrorists killed since January 2007, and another 1,018 wounded. Simmins took that number, subtracted the ones he had already logged to avoid duplication, and then averaged them out over the last six months. Turns out our soldiers are killing terrorists at a rate of up to 10 to 1.So, in the past five-plus months, nearly as many terrorists have been killed as U.S. troops have been in the past four years, two and a half months. One of the reasons I think support for the war has fallen as much as it has is that reporting the cost of soldiers' and Iraqi civilians' lives and terrorist attacks in conjunction with the benefits of a messy political process, which have been spotty. I have a very hard time believing that people's opinion of the situation would be so pessimistic if U.S. casualties were consistently juxtaposed with terrorist/militia casualties because such numbers make it clear that the terrorists are paying a heavy price to inflict casualties upon American troops. This is something Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar have recognized, which is why they're siding more and more with the Americans (along with the fact that al Qaeda in Iraq overplayed their hand).
Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite militias (all funded, trained and supplied by Iran and/or its proxy, Syria) are no match for the American military, and numbers like this prove it. There is no way the United States can lose this war militarily. The only way we can lose is if we lose the political will to continue fighting. The terrorists, as well as Iran and Syria, have recognized this and have carried out attacks designed to have maximum political, not military, impact, and they have succeeded in undermining support for a war that, by any objective measure, the United States cannot lose. What is unfathomable is that most of the American media and many political figures in the United States have either fallen for this gambit or used it to further their own political ends to the detriment of the American war effort. Also, for reasons stated here, I think this has had the ironic effect of increasing civilian casualties in Iraq.
Hat Tips: The Corner, Instapundit
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