As many of you know, every morning, after I say my morning prayers, I write and mail 3 letters (except for Sunday and holidays when the mail doesn't run). I send one to each of my senators and one to my representative, asking them to end the war and bring the troops home. Each time I mention the number of soldiers killed so far in Iraq (using statistics at icasualties.org). So far, I have written over 150 letters.
Here are the statistics as of today:
Day # 1,591 (4 years 4 months and 10 days, give or take)
3,648 U.S. Soldiers killed
26,558 U.S. Soldiers wounded (as of the end of June)
207 U.S. Soldiers killed since I started writing letters in June.
The latest person named by the DoD as killed in action is Private Michael Baloga from Everett Washington, who died Thursday. He leaves behind an infant daughter, a sister, a father, and others I don't know:
So these are dark days. And as I wrote just a few hours earlier, unless we really enter that darkness, and take some time to really experience the tragedy of what is happening all around us, it won't end.
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Update from Meteor Blades @ Daily Kos:
Perhaps you remember a few days ago when Lt. General Raymond Odierno said the drop in U.S. fatalities in July was an "initial positive sign" for the splurge of blood and bucks begun in February.
Try a different perspective regarding that "drop." Compare the Coalition’s fatalities for all the Julys that the U.S. has occupied Iraq via the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count Website:
July 2007: 77
July 2006: 46
July 2005: 58
July 2004: 58
July 2003: 49
Iraq by the numbers is an infuriating and ferociously saddening exercise. But let's do it anyway.
655,000: Iraqi deaths a Johns-Hopkins study attributed to the war nine months ago.
2770: Iraqi civilians killed in May 2007, according to government reports. (Actual figure unknown because the Iraqi government refuses to share its data with outside agencies that could verify totals.)
1.9 million: Estimated Iraqis displaced within the country.
2.35 million: Estimated Iraqi exiles outside the country in January 2007.
18,000: Iraqi doctors who have fled the country since March 2003.
???: Iraqis orphaned by the war – no reliable statistics.
25%: Iraqi children who are malnourished (May 2006).
130,000: U.S. troops taking part in the invasion at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s insistence.
500,000: U.S. troops estimated to be necessary by generals who put together a prewar contingency plan.
$60-$95 billion: Total cost of Iraq war and aftermath calculated by Paul Wolfowitz in February 2003.
$600 billion: Money Congress has allocated for direct costs of the war and occupation so far.
$750 billion: Total the Cheney-Bush Administration has sought for keeping the occupation going through September 2008.
$140,000: Estimated cost per minute of the war and occupation in 2007.
$2 trillion: Total direct and indirect costs of war and occupation (through 2010) calculated by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Blimes in January 2006.
$9 billion: Taxpayer money that disappeared in Iraq.
$549.7 million: Value of unaccounted for spare parts shipped to contractors in 2004.
$1.4 billion: Overcharges by Halliburton.
6,000-10,000: Estimated number of U.S. troops whose injuries have included brain trauma.
30%: Estimated percentage of troops who develop serious mental problems within three or four months after returning from Iraq.
14: Journalists killed by U.S. forces in Iraq.
112: Total number of journalists killed in Iraq.
1-2 a day: Hours of electricity available to the average residential household in Baghdad. (Actual figure unknown since U.S. no longer reports the electricity figures for the city.)
5000: "Diehard" insurgents the Pentagon estimated to be fighting on July 28, 2003.
20-30,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in October 2006.
70,000: Insurgents the Pentagon estimated in March 2007.
69%: Iraqis who say U.S. presence worsens security situation (polled in March 2007).
71%: Iraqis who want U.S. troops out within a year (polled in September 2006).
71%: Americans who want U.S. to withdraw troops by April 2008 (polled in July 2007).
52%: U.S. Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.
8%: Republican Senators who have voted to withdraw most troops by April 2008.
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