New declassified report is out that details that while violence may be down among US soldiers, it has virtually remained unchanged for the Iraqi people.
Data on violence point to stalemate in Iraq
By James Glanz and Eric Schmitt
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
BAGHDAD: Newly declassified statistics on the frequency of insurgent attacks in Iraq suggest that after major security gains last fall in the wake of an American troop increase, the conflict has drifted into at least a temporary stalemate, with levels of violence remaining constant from November 2007 through early 2008...
The violence has dropped down to pre-surge levels, but that still 600 to 1000 Iraqis dying a month, on average. That wasn't a good statistic in 2006, and we should not allow it to be used a bar now.
The new figures, presented Tuesday at a Senate hearing in Washington by David Walker, the top official at the Government Accountability Office, emerged a day after eight American soldiers - five in central Baghdad and three in Diyala Province - were killed in bomb attacks. And the trend appeared to continue Tuesday, as bombings and small arms attacks led to casualties among Iraqi civilians and security forces in or near at least seven cities.
In the deadliest of those attacks, a roadside bomb between the southern cities of Nasiriya and Basra struck a bus full of Iraqi civilians, killing at least 16, Iraqi police officials said. But Iraqi security forces also recorded deadly attacks in the areas of Hilla, Karbala, Baquba, Mosul, Baghdad and the town of Duluiya, north of the capital.
In prepared remarks for his testimony, delivered before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Walker said that the average number of daily insurgent attacks tallied by the American military had decreased from about 180 in June 2007 to 60 in the latest available count, for January. But that lower number, roughly equivalent to the levels of violence in the spring of 2005, remained essentially unchanged since the last significant decrease between October and November........More ►
We need to keep Iraq front and center. Other wars, and the internal issues they caused for the country the war was waged in, are rarely discussed. Some of our vietnam vets and vietnamese children still suffer from the effects Agent Orange and we hardly mention it. And I don't think the US has "officially" accepted that Agent Orange caused these ailments. You think it's hard for Iraq, and Afghan veterans to get benefits, try being a vietnam vet. My dad is a vietnam vet, and the government just kept giving him the run-around for his benefits. He finally just stop petitioning. He was going to a private doctor but even that got so expensive he stop doing that too. So let's not forget the less-discussed after effects of war, for both sides. And definitely don't let the media push it off the table.