Where do things stand in Iraq five years after the invasion?
So here we are on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and some sort of assessment seems almost mandatory. It doesn't start off with good news. The tenuous cease fire with the Iranian-backed Mahdi Militia broke down this week, leading to a new outbreak of violence in southern Iraq and some areas of Baghdad. the U.S. death count in Iraq topped 4000 on Tuesday. But maybe we didn't notice, because the news media and the public seem to have lost interest and coverage of the war has been eclipsed by the economy and the election to the point that it's down to about 4% of what's mentioned in the news.…
Article comments
26 - Dave Nalle
I think that what we saw was Petraeus trying desperately not to admit the obvious - which is that we are no longer really needed in Iraq, that we COULD in fact pull out within a matter of 6 months or so, and that the Iraqi government actually is pretty damned close to being able to run things on its own, if somewhat incompetently and corruptly. All they really need from us is to keep Iran off their back, which we could do diplomatically.
Dave
27 - Bullman
"In fact, the murder rate in New Orleans is higher than the U.S. casualty rate in Iraq"
The US casualty rate in Iraq is around 450 per 100,000.
28 - Dave Nalle
If you follow the link provided in the article you'll see that the comparison was for a one-week period. It's equally valid if you take the last 6 months or full year and make the same comparison.
Is your figure a cumulative rate and what period does it cover? Does it take into account rotations in deployment?
Dave
29 - Bullman
We know the US deployment has consistently been 100,000 to 200,000 in the five years since the invasion.
3376 hostile deaths of US soldiers/5 = 675.2 a year. Say the population of US troops is 150k, you end up with a hostile death rate of 450 per 100,000. 675 willful deaths annually (with a smaller population as well) is clearly far higher than New Orleans.
Source