1/12/2004

casualties increased 29% since Saddam's capture

Headline of Yahoo story: Attacks down 22% since Saddam's capture

Excerpt from story:

The average number of daily attacks fell to 18 in the four weeks since Dec. 14, when the coalition announced that Saddam had been captured the day before. In the four weeks before Saddam was found, attacks averaged 23 a day.

During the same periods, U.S. combat injuries dropped only slightly, from 233 in the four weeks before Saddam's capture to 224 in the four weeks after. And the attacks remain deadly: 22 troops killed from Nov. 16 through Dec. 13 and 31 in the comparable period Dec. 14- Jan. 10. But the figures for deaths do not include the 17 U.S. soldiers who died Nov. 15 when two helicopters crashed in the city of Mosul.


So the number of attacks has dropped, but the number of troops killed has increased. Conclusion: attacks, while fewer, are more deadly. Apropos to Glenn's comment, I don't think anyone should try to make a "big deal" about the worsening safety situation for our troops,because it's frankly ghoulish. I want the number of attacks AND the number of casualties to decrease.

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