EU-DIGEST

IRAQ: US military deaths in Iraq war 4,143 and total coalition military casualties 4448

As of Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008, at least 4,143 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associate Press report.The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq war, US

For the complete report from the Daily Times click on this link

Iraq: The Three Trillion Dollar War —Joseph E Stiglitz

With March 20 marking the fifth anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq, it’s time to take stock of what has happened. In our new book The Three Trillion Dollar War, Harvard’s Linda Bilmes and I conservatively estimate the economic cost of the war to the US to be $3 trillion, and the costs to the rest of the world to be another $3 trillion — far higher than the Bush administration’s estimates before the war. The Bush team not only misled the world about the war’s possible costs, but has also sought to obscure the costs as the war has gone on.

Was this incompetence or dishonesty? Almost surely both. Cash accounting meant that the Bush administration focused on today’s costs, not future costs, including disability and health care for returning veterans. Only years after the war began did the administration order the specially armored vehicles that would have saved the lives of many killed by roadside bombs. Not wanting to reintroduce a draft, and finding it difficult to recruit for an unpopular war, troops have been forced into two, three, or four stress-filled deployments. The US administration has tried to keep the war’s costs from the American public. Veterans groups have used the Freedom of Information Act to discover the total number of injured — 15 times the number of fatalities. Already, 52,000 returning veterans have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

America will need to provide disability compensation to an estimated 40 percent of the 1.65 million troops that have already been deployed. And, of course, the bleeding will continue as long as the war continues, with the health care and disability bill amounting to more than $600 billion (in present-value terms). Americans like to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Nor is there such a thing as a free war. The US — and the world — will be paying the price for decades to come.

Note Eu-Digest: Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize of economics at Colombia University is the co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict"

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, Iraq war, US Economy

Afghanistan - Operation Enduring Freedom: 193 Europeans killed

Of the 746 coalition fatalities since the conflict started 193 were European. Australia, Canada and the US together so far have had 553 casualties. Among the coalition forces there have been 7,171 wounded of which 4,324 required medical air transport out of the combat zone. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview that his war-torn country will need foreign troops for at least another decade. "I believe it will take another 10 years, at least 10 years," he told Bild newspaper when asked for how much longer the country will need German troops.

Labels: Afghanistan, Casualties, EU

IRAQ - December 2007 - 4204 total of which 3897 US soldiers

During the above period there have also been been 38,876 wounded and 132 suicides. Twenty percent of the U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan come from the Army National Guard. Many are from small towns, and go to war alongside family and friends.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the strain of the war in Iraq is increasingly forcing senior Pentagon leaders to be blunter about the military's inability to sustain war operations indefinitely, a shift in tone that may mean more troops come home sooner.The Army is expected to grow to 547,000 soldiers by 2010, and Casey has left the door open for an even bigger increase beyond that. But time is running short for the Army now, Mr. McCaffrey says. "We can probably sustain a force in Iraq indefinitely (given adequate funding) of some 10-plus brigades," McCaffrey wrote in a post-trip report. "However, the US Army is starting to unravel."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday painted a bleak picture of the situation of children in Iraq, where an estimated 2 million boys and girls continue suffer from poor nutrition, disease and interrupted education. Thousands of families have been obliged to leave their homes because of violence or threats, and hundreds of children have lost their lives in the violence, UNICEF said in a press release. Iraq Body Count’s research shows that 27,000 civilian deaths from violence were reported in 2006. This represents a huge increase compared to preceding years: 14,000 killed in 2005, 10,500 in 2004 and just under 12,000 in 2003 (7,000 during the actual war/invasion, and another 5,000 during the ‘peace’ that followed). Early indications are that roughly 20,000 violent civilian deaths will be recorded for the first 9 months of 2007. By year’s end, 2007 looks to be the second-worst calendar year for violence in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, trailing only behind 2006, and still almost twice as deadly for civilians as the first year.

Labels: Casualties, Europe, Iraq war, Military, Russia; US

2007 Is Deadliest Year for US in Iraq

The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of five more soldiers, making 2007 the deadliest year for U.S. troops despite a recent downturn, according to an Associated Press count. At least 852 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year — the highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to AP figures.The grim milestone passed despite a sharp drop in U.S. and Iraqi deaths here in recent months, after a 30,000-strong U.S. force buildup. There were 39 deaths in October, compared to 65 in September and 84 in August. Five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in two separate roadside bomb attacks, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of the Multi-National Force-Iraq's communications division.

Note EU-Digest: Unfortunately in all these figures no one ever seems to mention the civilian casualties. The Huffington Post recently noted: "The fault for all this confusion about civilian casualties lies with the U.S. military, which decided early on it was not worth counting Iraqi civilian casualties. Even the term given to their tragic loss at the hands of U.S. forces -- "collateral damage" -- smacks of bureaucratic hubris. A chilling segment on 60 Minutes reports that 30 civilians killed was the magic number Pentagon officials could live with when targeting a "high-value" terrorist in Afghanistan; anything higher requires approval from the defense secretary or president. The Pentagon should keep closer tabs on Iraqi (and Afghan) civilian deaths, especially when the United States is at fault. Only the American military has the presence on the ground and resources to catalog reliable statistics. It won't, for obvious PR reasons, but it has in the past. After military operations in Somalia and Kosovo in the 1990s, for instance, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted body count estimates of local civilians. They should do the same for Iraq and Afghanistan."

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, US

This past month (September) 63 US and two EU soldiers (one Roumanian and British) were killed.

This past Sunday alone, there were 35 civilians killed; Baghdad: 1 farmer killed by gunmen south of the capital; and 5 bodies found. Mosul: politician killed along with 3 bodyguards; 2 policemen killed by gunmen; 2 shot dead in market; 11 bodies found. Al-Uhaymer: 7 bodies found and taken to Baquba morgue. Haswa: 3 bodies.

In September there were 1,280 civilians killed. This brings the total of civilian deaths as a result of the violence to 81,119. The total number of "coalition" troop casualties since the beginning of the war now stands at 4053. A total of 36,943 soldiers have been wounded so far during the conflict and 122 coalition troops have committed suicide.

Labels: Casualties, Coalition, EU, Iraq war

Alarming increase of Casualties in Iraq as US celebrates Memorial day

The latest U.S. military deaths included five Saturday: a Marine killed in Al Anbar province, three soldiers who died in a car bomb attack in Salahuddin province in the north and a soldier killed south of Baghdad. The others were a soldier who died Friday in an ambush in Taji, north of Baghdad, and two who were killed Wednesday in a bombing east of Baghdad. The deaths raised the number of U.S. military fatalities to 3,452 since the start of the war in March 2003, according to the website icasualties.org, which tracks military deaths. The May death toll of 101 U.S. military personnel makes it the seventh time a monthly total has surpassed 100 since the U.S.-led invasion.The wrangling in Washington over war financing, still fierce despite the Democrats’ decision to forgo for now withdrawal deadlines, has obscured a more fundamental debate over what Iraq’s future might look like without American troops.

Iraqis who favor a speedy American departure include those who think the country will stabilize after a flaring of violence and redrawing of sectarian boundaries. Some factions, including many supporters of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, said they believed that they would be better able to bring stability, albeit on their own terms. “I think the Sadr tide will rule the country,” said Muhammad Qasim Ali, a suitcase salesman in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karada. “They are the majority and they have a good background, and that gives them a chance to take control. Once we take power, we will be merciful with Sunnis.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, Troop withdrawal

U.S. suffering higher casualties in Iraq

Two months into the troop “surge” in Iraq, the U.S. military is suffering an increase in battlefield deaths while Iraqi civilian casualties in greater Baghdad have dropped sharply.

US Army officials say the reason is two-fold. Army units have intensified their efforts to defeat the insurgents. And, al-Qaida in Iraq and Iraqi guerrillas are focusing more on American targets to defeat the troop reinforcement plan, which is widely seen as the United States’ last chance to stabilize the country.The first quarter of 2007 marked the first time that 80 or more Americans were killed in action in each of three consecutive months. April, with 35 deaths so far, is on a pace to exceed 100 deaths, which would make it one of the deadliest periods for American troops since the war began four years ago. January, February and March combined for the deadliest first quarter, with 244 deaths compared with 148 in 2006, 200 in 2005 and 119 in 2004, according casualty counts by the Web site icasualties.org.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, US

4 Europeans (Britons) dead in Iraq; U.S. copter down

Four British soldiers were killed Thursday in an ambush in southern Iraq, and Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tehran's support for Iraqi militants could lead Britain "to reflect on our relationship with Iran."

The U.S. military also reported the deaths of five soldiers around Baghdad. And a U.S. Army helicopter went down south of the capital, but all nine aboard survived, officials said. The four British deaths — the biggest loss of life for British forces in more than four months

The number of Iraqis killed in the past seven days rose to nearly 550 despite a U.S.-Iraqi security sweep that is now in its seventh week. Over the weekend, roadside bombs claimed the lives of six American soldiers.

Labels: Britain, Casualties, Helicopters, Iraq. War, US

American forces casualties toll nearly twice Iraqi forces-U.S. military deaths in March total 81 - by Steven Hurst

The U.S. military death toll in March, the first full month of the security crackdown, was nearly twice that of the Iraqi army, which American and Iraqi officials say is taking the leading role in the latest attempt to curb violence in the capital, surrounding cities and Anbar province, according to figures compiled on Saturday.

According to the AP count 3,246 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. At least 83 American forces died in January and 80 in February, according to the AP tabulation.Additionally, the Iraqi ministry figures listed 1,872 Iraqi civilian deaths for the month, about 300 more than the AP tabulation, which is mainly gathered from daily police reports nationwide.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, US, War