May's 2 week total fatalities in Iraq

U.S. Military fatalities for the Iraq war in the first 2 weeks of May totaled 50. For the entire month of May 2006 there was a total of 69 fatalities. For the first 2 weeks of April, 2007 there were 51 fatalities so we are on our way for another record month for fatalities.

There are also 3 soldiers who are missing in operations in Iraq. I pray for all our soldiers and their families.

Bring the troops home!

U.S. Fatalities for the first week in May

U.S. Military fatalities for the Iraq war in the first week in May totaled 27. April had 28 fatalities for the same period. This is at a pace equal for a month of over 100 fatalities again, to be exact a pace of 108 for the month.

For the entire month of May 2006 there was a total of 69 fatalities, again showing the increase in fatalities, while the supposed "surge" is touted by Bush as the answer to the situation we find ourselves in Iraq.

U.S. Casualties for April: Crying for humanity

On this sad, tragic day in the Iraq war, we have reached 86 deaths so far this month, with still one week to go. The chart shows that there is an ever-increasing death rate, from the very beginning of the war, to now. This fact reveals similar conditions were shown in the Vietnam war. It proceeded a significant increase in troop levels then, and God forbid, this Administration uses similar thinking and strategy. They are becoming more desperate to show they have the answers by even more increases in troop levels.The chart shows that the fatalities are increasing steadily with Al-Quaida using suicide bombers to show their determination. There appears to be an infinite supply of these individuals willing to give up their lives for what they see as their just cause.

What a tragedy for every human life lost. Has the species gone mad? It appears so. My wife has said to me many times that the signals are all there, we may have over extended our welcome on planet earth and may become as extinct as the dinosaurs. The earth is reacting to our presence by presenting us with a result of our collective actions: Global Warming. Scientists say we have only 10 years left to reverse the tend before it can't be stopped and Mother Earth melts its Polar Ice packs and floods wipe out millions of us, saving us from ourselves. What a tragedy. And the real tragedy is that most of us humans are asleep to see how we personally are all connected in causing these problems.

But, most of us believe someone else is doing it, not me. And for many on this planet, the solution is killing; killing themselves through solitary suicide, others through murder and wars, and still others by suicide bombing and blowing themselves up to join God. They believe in a heaven and believe these actions will get them there sooner, rather than later. The so-called religious clerics commit sins against God and nature by supporting and encouraging this behavior. Evidently, they don't believe as their "good" book tells them that there is also a hell. If you believe in a God, ask yourself are we humans fit to be in their presence when we are gone given our support for war, killing, murder, access to guns not for their need to kill game for our food needs but for the "sport" of it. And be sure to look yourself in the eye in front of your mirror without looking away, when you answer that question.

Now the data:
Dec. to April 2005 U.S. Fatalities were 324
Dec. to April 2006 U.S. Fatalities were 292
Dec. to April 2007 U.S. Fatalities were 443 (so far with one week remaining for April)

Do you still see the "surge" working?

April first 2 week total of fatalities in Iraq equals 51

U.S. fatalities in Iraq now total 51 for the first 2 weeks in April. There were 24 the first week in April, so this second week shows and increase in the rate. We are now losing 3.64 soldiers per day in Iraq. This means that by month's end, we can expect that we will have had 109 fatalities.

U.S. Fatalities for the first week in April

U.S. Military fatalities for the first week in April totaled 28. On a Monthly basis this would equate to about 112. Compared to the previous month, March had 24 fatalities, as I reported in my post titled, "U.S. Fatalities for the 1st week in March 2007".

U.S. Fatalities
For the entire month of April 2005 a total of 52

For the entire month of April 2006 a total of 76

Projected from data for the first week we are on our way to 112 for the month of April, 2007.

Let's see how good your math is. For the same month, If we had 52 in 2005, 76 in 2006 and are on our way for 112 for 2007, does this show that things are getting better or worse? If you guessed worse you are correct. President Bush, VP Cheney and now Senator John McCain and Senator Joe Lieberman think things are getting better. They must have done poorly in Math too, as we knew and have been reminded quite often that Bush has no command of English either. Someone investigate what is being taught at Yale please. Maybe that is why Bush pushed “No child left behind”, as he would have been left behind, if they had standards and exams for professors and teachers when Bush was getting his education. Check into his Elementary school too, which was Sam Houston Elementary School in Midland, Texas. as maybe they didn't have standards for teachers there either. Something has to explain his poor use of the English language. He must have done poorly in Civics as well or wouldn't have trashed the Constitution so easily and so often.

Oh, and we had 7 U.S. Contractors killed in Afghanistan which are not counted nor kept track of by the media and Department of Defense. This compares to only 2 in March and 1 in February of this year. Still think things are getting better. Let's stop this useless war, which was started on lies and reasons no longer valid, otherwise blood will be on your hands too for not speaking out to stop the war! Saddam has been removed from power and is dead but apparently Osama Bin Laden lives. Go figure.

Conclusive evidence: Things are worse in Iraq, not better!

Taking a fresh look at current realities on the ground, (since so much has been made recently on the changing conditions in Iraq,) according to the Administration and senior Republican Senators, the American people are not being brought up to date on the "good" news that things are really much better than before and that this "new strategy" by President Bush is working, according to these pronouncements.

Since we do not have actual measures of success, the only way one could know if things are truly better in my view is to look at U.S. Casualties. I have been posting on this topic recently but I wanted to take a fresh view today and look at both short term results (one month) and longer term (4 month and 8 month periods). If there truly is improvement it should show in the numbers and trends. Since there is no accurate information on Iraqi deaths, the only real measure worth using is unfortunately U.S. Fatalities. So without bias I first present the data from i-Casualties.org which gets its data from the Department of Defense.

Note: this data below has been updated today, April 2nd, from previous listing as new fatalitiess were added after March 31st for the month of March by D.O.D.

Data from the most recent month, March, compared to March of the previous 2 years.
2007 82
2006 31
2005 35

This is a 165% increase over 2006.

Data looking back on a 4 month average for the periods of Dec. through March, for each of the same years.

2007 357
2006 216
2005 272

This is a 65% increase over 2006.

Data looking back on a 8 month average for the periods of Aug. through March, for each of the same years.

2007 667
2006 530
2005 619

This is an increase of 26% increase over 2006.

In summary the longer the period of time used, the lower the percentage. The more recent the data, the higher the U.S. casualties. This demonstrates conclusively that despite words by Senator's McCain and Lieberman and others, like President Bush and VP Cheney, to confuse the American public, they are all deceiving the American people. Things are not getting better, they are getting worse

UPDATE: 3:30pm PST And now if the data above wasn't enough to convince you, here's the late afternoon addition which states March totals show more U.S fatalities than Iraqi's.

By AP reporter Steven Hurst today late.

U.S. March toll nearly twice Iraq forces

"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."

(For this complete AP story click here.)

Fatalities by State from Iraq War and why Vermonters called for impeachment

A few days ago I wrote a piece titled, "Calls for impeachment from small towns across Vermont". At that time I had no idea as to why 29 towns have called for the impeachment of President Bush. I had first attributed it to the fact that Vermont had the only Progressive candidate in the Senate, Bernie Sanders and therefore it was understandable that many might vote for impeachment given the history of the blunders and failed policy of this President and his Administration.

But upon closer examination I had my eyes opened wide to the real reason that Vermont was leading the way in calls for Bush's impeachment, to end this Iraq war and to bring the troops home. Vermonters on a per person basis, have sacrificed more of its blood treasure, its soldiers, than any other State in the country, a fact not known nor cited by the main stream media. These families know first hand what this war is costing. By contrast the District of Columbia, the seat of politics and of all branches of government, had the least % casualties by a margin of 1 DC fatality for every 5 Vermonters. I am not trying to minimalize even one death here, but rather to give one good reason why Vermonters may have called for the impeachment of President Bush. They are living the consequences of going into this war of choice first hand.

Click on the image above to enlarge it and see where your State stands on the list. They are sorted by Fatalities from greatest to least percentage based upon the State population. Fatalities included in the data are those listed as of 3-11-07 on icasualties.org.

U.S. Fatalities for the 1st week in March 2007

March 2007 fatalities are running well ahead of previous years and continue to depict an increase in the escalation of the war in Iraq and its unimaginable consequences on the families of our soldiers. Here's the most recent data as of this morning and comparison to previous years:


U.S. Fatalities
For the entire month of March 2005 a total of 35

For the entire month of March 2006 a total of 31

Through only March 7th, 2007 a total of 24

Three more painful weeks to go yet in this month and additional troops added to the effort. News reports today announced that the Pentagon wants to add an additional 7,000 troops above the "surge" in support of forces on the ground, according to an article by Robin Stringer of Bloomberg today.

This President needs a Tough Love intervention

The pace of U.S. fatalities for February is already ahead of 2004-2006, as more of our human treasure is lost, to say nothing of our treasury. It seems history repeats itself for this President George Walker Bush. This is the same man that when he was going bankrupt in his Oil business threw more good money after bad, until he was finally bankrupt and Mommy and Daddy bailed him out with the help of the House of Saud. When a bailout is really needed, the House of Saud is nowhere to be found. I guess they too have learned their lesson with our President and aren't willing to finance his pleasures again.

With the Budget process here, the President has the audacity for asking this Congress for over $625 Billion for the Military. I pray and hope this Congress can clip his wings and send him cup in hand to the Saudi's for a handout. We sure could use it!