U.S. Deaths Plummet In Iraq
Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the top day-to-day U.S. commander in Iraq, also expressed cautious optimism over a decline in the number of American troops killed this month. At least 60 U.S. troops have died so far in July after the death toll topped 100 for the previous three months, according to an Associated Press tally based on military statements.
Odierno said it appeared that casualties had increased as fresh U.S. forces expanded operations into militant strongholds as part of the five-month-old security operation aimed at clamping off violence in the capital, but were going down as the Americans gained control of the areas.
“We’ve started to see a slow but gradual reduction in casualties and it continues in July,” he said at a joint news conference with Iraqi military commander Maj. Gen. Abboud Qanbar. “It’s an initial positive sign, but I would argue we need a bit more time to make an assessment whether it’s a true trend.”
(AP)
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
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What? I did not find this story on CNN’s website! It must be Bush propaganda!
MSNBC chose this headline:
‘U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,638′
no mention of the decrease
and no mention on foxnews.com
just to let you know foxnews is just following the crowd, better than others but still focuses on the negative by editing out positive stories
July 26th, 2007 at 5:20 amKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops fought two separate battles with militants in southern Afghanistan, killing more than 60 suspected Taliban insurgents, officials said Thursday
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-07-26-afghanistan_N.htm
July 26th, 2007 at 5:49 amThe MSM is only interested in US body counts and casualty figures…they could care less about positive reports. The MSM is just as much an enemy as is Ali-Baba.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:08 amThe negativity is what sells. Don’t forget the old news motto, “If it bleeds, it leads.” The media has been a locomotive of this fear-based society for decades. People don’t watch the news to see increased Iraqi stability and yard of the month stories. They want explosions and fire in the streets. It’s just the sick twisted nature of us. I, personally, only have interest in the weather.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:31 amstinking amazing,
July 26th, 2007 at 7:22 amterrorist can’t do terrorist things while they are being shot at
simply stinking amazing
Yeah ,, I figured as much
July 26th, 2007 at 8:02 amF” the MSM …I get all my info right here
Cheers to Pat & Michael Yon !! Hooorahh !!
Excellent news, but of course the drive-by Media will call it a “lucky blip”
or “temporary artifact of the data that won’t last…”
Hooah, troops!
BTW, Pat, the redesigned site looks great!
July 26th, 2007 at 8:11 amOk so some simple math. This story was written on the 25th, with 6 more days left in the month. At least 60 soldiers have died so far, let’s say 65. Add another 20% and the pace is for 80+ soldiers to die this month. 20 less than last month. This is good, but is hardly a “plummet” as the title of the article spins- I mean states.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:13 amUh…speaking of Iraq, how does one explain this new poll?
“A national telephone poll conducted July 9-17 by CBS and the New York Times with 1,554 adults asked, “Looking back, do you think the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, or should the United States have stayed out?” Forty-two percent said it was the right thing to do. Fifty-four percent said the U. S. should have stayed out.
A similar poll, conducted last May, asked the same question. Then, 35 percent said taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do and 61 percent said the United States should have stayed out.
Janet Elder, editor of news surveys and election analysis at the New York Times, said the change was “counterintuitive.” Because the newspaper didn’t believe it was possible more Americans now support the initial invasion than did two months ago, their staff conducted a duplicate poll a week later.
“We had a poll finding we could not explain,” Elder wrote Wednesday. Another nationwide telephone poll was conducted July 20-22 with 889 adults had nearly identical results. Once again, 42 percent said taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do. Three percent less than those polled the previous week, or 51 percent, said the United States should have stayed out.
Elder wrote the poll didn’t help the New York Times “understand a lot more about what was driving the change” but, she added, “We had confidence in the results.””
July 26th, 2007 at 8:19 amPat, I don’t know about the new site man. The old tan background looked good. also the links in the middle like that really break up the page. Put the links out of the blog and change the background back to the old one.
That will be $.02
July 26th, 2007 at 8:56 amYa gotta love those polls. They always claim a 3% margin of error but other similar polls will give answers far different than the original poll taken. It makes one question what the intent of the poll was
July 26th, 2007 at 8:57 am@ eric -
why say 65? you just add numbers to fit your equation?
65 * .2 = 13
65 + 13 = 78
78 does not equal ‘80+’ unless your union teacher taught you math and graded on the curve
or using number in the article
60 * .2 = 12
60 + 12 = 72
but you would love a big number I bet, it sounds so much better for your cause
July 26th, 2007 at 9:18 amHow do I get to yesterdays posts with this new format?
July 26th, 2007 at 9:19 amJust wanted to say that I found these statements about the American death toll for July in an article on FoxNews.com, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290866,00.html.
It also talks about the increased accuracy of insurgent mortor and rpg fire, most likely from Iranian adivsors.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:25 amThis is the kind of news that demoratz try to spin in their favor. No matter how good the news is their mantra is always going to be Bush Bad Dems good.
Seems to me I recall in 1968 we had at one point 500 deaths and 1200 wounded per week!!!! On D-Day alone we lost 3,000 KIA’s. In the Bulge 80,000? Were were the FDR lied, people died crowd back then?
PS Pat, killer site. I let a bunch of people know about it. All of them were especially impressed with the Bashman.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pmBravo Zulu.
Dan Infidel: Elder at the NYT can’t believe it because she has a big fat mental block and can’t understand basic human behavior. In the US, everyone loves a winner. When the project in Iraq shows promise (as of late), more people will say they support it. When it was not doing as well (say, before “the Surge”), more people condemned it. Despite the NYT’s best efforts to spin the war, they can’t control what people hear Gen. Ordinero or Petreus say, or what the statistics/kill rate of enemies, show.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:45 pmWhich is exactly why I get my news from guys like you Pat! Keep up the great fight and thanks for what you’re doing.
SF
July 26th, 2007 at 3:17 pmJMH