Counting in Iraq: Update II

In March, I wrote that "U.S. military deaths in Iraq should surpass that of the World Trade Center around October 1st" of this year, and that "coalition military deaths in Iraq ... should surpass that for ... 9/11 in its entirety in late September." Those two grim statistical milestones were reached earlier this week, though I was too depressed at the time to blog about them. And, now, according to Iraq Coalition Casualties, total coalition military deaths have hit 3,000; U.S. military casaulties in Iraq now stand at 2,763, fourteen more than the number of people who died in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. What's more, after a pretty consistent downward trend in military deaths this year, October has so far been scarily violent (an average of 3.53 deaths per day), though it should be noted that last October saw an uptick in deaths too (3.19 per day). Then there's this: A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred. And we have at least another twenty-seven months of this carnage, since Bush has vowed that the U.S. will never leave Iraq as long as he is president: Mike Wallace: And Woodward says that no matter what's occurred in Iraq, Mr. Bush does not welcome any pessimistic assessments from his aides, because he is sure that his war has Iraq and America on the right path. Bob Woodward: Late last year, he had key Republicans up to the White House to talk about the war, and said 'I Will Not Withdraw Even If Laura And Barney Are The Only Ones Supporting Me.' Barney is his dog." If the current trends in deaths hold (and I have no idea what another twenty-seven months of fighting would do to these trends), that would mean around another 1,900 dead coalition soldiers, another 1,750 dead U.S. soldiers, and another 415,000 dead Iraqi civilians. One more grim piece of news: practices that were once called "torture" are now called "alternative" interrogation methods. Ok, that's enough. In a few months, I'll do "Update III" when U.S. military deaths in Iraq exceed the grand total for 9/11.