All In The Numbers
By Mitch Berg
The Associated Press h compares Iraq, before and after the war, with perhaps some surprising results:
U.S. TROOP LEVELS:
_October 2007: 170,000 at peak of troop buildup.
_Nov. 30, 2009: 115,000.
CASUALTIES:
_Confirmed U.S. military deaths as of Dec. 1, 2009: at least 4,366.
_Confirmed U.S. military wounded (hostile) as of Nov. 30, 2009: 31,572.
_Confirmed U.S. military wounded (non-hostile, using medical air transport) as of Oct. 31, 2009: 39,232.
I did expect that; it’s not unusual that many more troops are injured in accidents than in combat.
_U.S. military deaths for November 2009: 11, one of the lowest monthly death tolls since the war began.
_Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of Sept. 30, 2009: 1,442.
_Iraqi deaths in November 2009 from war-related violence: at least 93, the lowest full monthly figure since The Associated Press began tracking Iraqi deaths in May 2005
I’d snark that it’s more dangerous to be a civilian in Chicago than an American serviceman in Iraq – but that’s been true for almost two years. What is shocking is that the death rate, per capita, isn’t a whole lot different than the per capita murder rate in Chicago .
_Assassinated Iraqi academics as of Nov. 23, 2009: 432.
_Journalists killed on assignment as of Dec. 1, 2009: 141.
What? No count of lawyers and “reality TV superstars?”
COST:
_Over $705 billion, according to the National Priorities Project.
Cheaper than healthcare, and has the salutary effect of killing Al Quaeda terrorists.
OIL PRODUCTION:
_Prewar: 2.58 million barrels per day.
_Nov. 24, 2009: 2.34 million barrels per day.
Halliburton! Halliburton! Halliburton!
ELECTRICITY:
_Prewar nationwide: 3,958 megawatts. Hours per day (estimated): 4-8.
_Nov. 4, 2009: Nationwide: 5,890 megawatts. Hours per day: N/A.
But…but…didn’t Michael Moore assure us that Iraq before the war was a paradise?
TELEPHONES:
_Prewar land lines: 833,000.
_Oct. 4, 2009: 1,250,000.
_Prewar cell phones: 80,000.
_Oct. 4, 2009: an estimated 19.5 million.
Which may be one reason we’re winning; the insurgents are too busy texting to aim.
WATER:
_Prewar: 12.9 million people had potable water.
_Oct. 12, 2009: 21.2 million people have potable water.
SEWERAGE:
_Prewar: 6.2 million people served.
_Oct. 12, 2009: 11.5 million people served.
How long ago was it that the left assured us that things were worse, and would never get better?
The history of the Cold War teaches us that the left’s next steps will be denial, bargaining, anger and co-option.
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:20 am
Across the lefty side of the blogosphere, heads are exploding faster than you can say schadenfreude!
And the man didn’t even use the word “win.”
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 am
As I get older, I’m getting more Constitutionalist than ever. The United States military exists for one purpose only – to defend this country.
Yes, it is nice to see progress being made Over There. But too much of this looks like typical US Marshall Plan do-gooder-ism. We don’t owe those people air conditioning and cell phones; let them build their own.
The US military is the guest who never leaves. We’re still in Korea, Germany and Japan three generations after those wars ended. We won the war and we also won the peace; time to come home.
Iraq was sold to us as a war of national defense – a pre-emptive strike against a rogue nation that had (or nearly had) WMDs. On that basis, I said Let’s Roll. Okay, so maybe the WMDs were spirited away to Syria before we got our hands on them. Still, mission accomplished.
Afghanistan? What threat does that pose to USA? Recruiters for Muslim terrorists? Hell, we have those in Minneapolis. If that’s your threshold for going to war, we’re going to need a LOT more troops.
America first. Time to bring our folks home.
.
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:56 am
Afghanistan? What threat does that pose to USA?
I believe that DaClown could point at a big hole in NYC where we used to have a couple of buildings caused by some folks in Afghanistan.
I do agree, though, that the US military does too much overseas. Time to get out of the EU, Japan (that’ll freak out the Chinese), etc.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
Time to get out of the EU, Japan
I’ve been doing some looking into the sizes of NATO and other Euro militaries, and how they’ve dropped since the end of the Cold War.
Measuring “divisions” isn’t entirely meaningful, since the “brigade” has become the main combat unit these days (there are traditionally usually 3-4 brigades to a division), but it’s useful for comparison purposes.
Comparing ground combat divisions (or their equivalent) ready for fairly immediate action in roughly 1985 with today:
US – 19/12 (plus the Marines) (and not counting the Guard and Reserve)
UK – 5/3ish
Germany – 12/2-3ish.
Norway – 1ish (plus a HUGE home guard)/a brigade (plus a big home guard)
France – 10/5ish.
Netherlands – 2/less than 1
Belgium – 2/less than 1
Sweden – 5/less than 1 (plus a big home guard)
Switzerland – 12/4
Israel – 15/15 (!)
Poland – 8 (soviet)/3-4 (westernized).
And, lest we forget, Russia – 100+/10ish (I’d have to look it up).
While all of the west cashed in their “Peace Dividend”, the Euros cashed a lot more of it – and still, tens of thousands of Americans are in Europe seeing to their defense.
If they need one (and if, as RickDFL says, their economies are so dadburn fantastic!), then let them provide their own. The US military should be out of Europe (or at the very least moved into Poland and out of Germany).
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
The hole in the ground was not an act of war waged against this nation, it was a crime of property damage and injury to persons.
We know this because the Obama Administration is trying the people accused of committing it in civil court, not in military tribunal. We’re back to treating terrorism as a law enforcement problem, not a military problem.
Therefore, get the military out of Afghanistan now. Ask the local cops to extradite Bin Laden. Treat him just like Roman Polanski.
.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
The hole in the ground was not an act of war waged against this nation
A singular and foolhardy opinion which flies in the face of the claims of those who planned and executed it. We had 8 years of treating terrorist attacks as criminal actions, and that “hole in the ground” was the inevitable result.
If we return to the (failed) policies of the Clinton years, we can expect more of the same.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
or at the very least moved into Poland and out of Germany
Russians gonna love that!
Let’s get the heck out of every country whose government does not want us there. If they want us to stay – let them pay for our services.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Ask the local cops to extradite Bin Laden.
And what happened to Yemen’s offer to Clintoon to do just the same?
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I’m trying to understand the safe as Chicago concept. 73 soldiers have died in combat since Obama was inaugurated. If we go with the all time peak of 170,000 troops, that’s a 43 deaths per 100,000 troops rate over 10 months. Chicago, on the other hand had less than 16 homicides per 100,000 residents over a full year. Am I looking at this the same way you are?
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:40 am
I was going by Iraqi civilian deaths/100,000.