Latest official US statistics document heavy casualties inflicted by the Iraqi Resistance on US occupation troops. As of 19 February 2008, 3,960 US soldiers have died: 3,225 killed in action and 735 through “non-hostile” fire. Wounded in action totaled 29,133, of which 13,013 did not return to duty within 72 hours.
According to data provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center, Statistical Information Analysis Division, from 19 March 2003 through 2 February 2008, the non-hostile deaths included 139 self-inflicted deaths. The great majority of those who died, 3,070 or 78% of the total were aged 30 years or below.
The number of US soldiers who undergo major amputations, toes and fingers not counted, reached 500 on 12 January 2007. This number comprised only 2.2%of the total wounded at that time, 22,700.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI), according to one expert cited in a February 2007 Discovery magazine article, affected over 7,500 soldiers. Mental illness or psychosocial disorder affected about 1/3 of the 103,788 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars of aggression diagnosed between 30 September 2001 and 30 September 2005. Among the effects of these psychosocial disorders were homelessness and marital problems, including domestic violence. The Pentagon reported in March 2006 that more than 8,000 US soldiers had deserted. The following year it said that the rate of desertions was even increasing.
Troop “surge” a big failure
The yearly statistics prove that the US troop “surge” proclaimed by the Bush administration as a great success is in fact a big failure.
The US Defense Manpower Data Center recorded the total deaths in the year 2006 as 704. After the so-called “surge” with the increase of 30,000 US troops, the deaths increased to 762 for year 2007. The rate of American deaths in Baghdad over the first seven weeks of the “surge” security escalation had nearly doubled from the previous period. According to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Monitor, US troop deaths since the “surge” has been running at 3.14 per day. Moreover, reports indicate that even after the troop surge, more than two-thirds of Baghdad is under the effective control of various groups within the Iraqi resistance. In an attempt to crush the resistance in Baghdad, the US military dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs in the first ten minutes of a January 10 [2008] assault on the town of Arab Jabour on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.
Forty houses and the main road were destroyed and many civilians were killed.
More than a million Iraqis dead, more than 4 million refugees
The main victim of the US-led war of aggression and occupation in Iraq is however the Iraqi people. A survey made in August 2007 estimated over 1.2 million deaths since March 2003. The Opinion Research Business (ORB), a London polling organization, published the results of its survey on September 14, 2007. The ORB reported that “48% died from a gunshot wound, 20% from the impact of a car bomb, 9% from aerial bombardment, 6% as a result of an accident and 6% from another blast/ ordnance.”
Besides the over a million deaths caused by the US-led war of aggression, Iraqis are subjected to torture, rape, and many other human rights violations. 60 to 70% of Iraqi children are reported to be suffering from psychological problems. 68% of Iraqis have no access to safe drinking water. Cholera and other epidemics are taking place, while half of Iraqi doctors have left the country.
According to a press briefing of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on 19 February 2008, there are some 2 million Iraqi refugees outside the country and about 2.4 million internal refugees. 95% of the refugees outside Iraq are in Middle East countries, with about 1.2-1.4 million in Syria and 500-750 thousand in Jordan.
At the end of his mission to Iraq and neighboring countries, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, appealed for international help for Iraqi refugees and for Syria and Jordan. Jordan announced it was spending US$1.7 billion yearly to assist the Iraqi refugees in Jordan.
Iraqi resistance grows in strength,condemns US scheme of sectarian civil war While the US says there were only 2000 attacks against US “Coalition” troops in September 2007 compared to 3200 attacks in September 2006, claiming that the “troop surge” was successful, an Iraqi resistance leader declared in an international solidarity conference in March 2007 that the Iraqi resistance was carrying out over 1300 attacks each week.
Abdul Jabbar al-Kubaysi, general secretary of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance, described how large areas of Iraq and many of the smaller cities and towns are under the control of the Iraqi resistance and in the larger cities, fierce street battles rage daily. The conference held in Chianciano, Italy, also had Ayatollah al Sayyed Ahmed al-Baghdadi, a leader of the resistance among the Shiites, as a speaker by telephone. He condemned the US scheme of fomenting “sectarian civil war” between Sunnis and Shiites and claiming that US occupation is a “peace keeping” mission. He declared: “Confrontational clashes were never known before the occupation. It is a
confrontation planned by external powers to burn Iraq and the whole region.”
He added: “America will never be able to control Iraq because of the strength of the resistance. We will always reject the occupation. No mask could ever cover up its ugly face. The resistance will remove all the masks, and defeat the occupier’s project of civil war in Iraq.” Al-Kubaysi concluded his speech at the international conference: “With the heroic sacrifices of the Iraqi people, the American occupation has been stopped dead in its tracks. The shackles of occupation are crumbling, thanks to the courageous resistance of the Iraqi people.” (See Kosta Harlan, “Voices of the Iraqi Resistance”, Fight Back! Lucha y Resistir!, March 2007, www.fightbacknews.org).
A US armored military vehicle smoulders in the background after an attack by Iraqi resistance forces. file photo.
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