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Today's
Stories
October
29, 2003
Gary Leupp
Every
Day, One KIA: On the Iraq War Casualty Figures
October
28, 2003
Rich Gibson
The
Politics of an Inferno: Notes on Hellfire 2003
Uri Avnery
Incident
in Gaza
Diane
Christian
Wishing
Death
Robert
Fisk
Eyewitness
in Iraq: "They're Getting Better"
Toni Solo
Authentic Americans and John Negroponte
Jason
Leopold
Halliburton in Iran
Shrireen Parsons
When T-shirts are Verboten
Chris
White
9/11
in Context: a Marine Veteran's Perspective
October 27, 2003
William
A. Cook
Ministers
of War: Criminals of the Cloth
David
Lindorff
The
Times, Dupes and the Pulitzer
Elaine
Cassel
Antonin
Scalia's Contemptus Mundi
Robert
Fisk
Occupational Schizophrenia
John Chuckman
Banging Your Head into Walls
Seth Sandronsky
Snoops R Us
Bill Kauffman
George
Bush, the Anti-Family President
October
25 / 26, 2003
Robert
Pollin
The
US Economy: Another Path is Possible
Jeffrey St. Clair
Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China
James
Bunn
Plotting
Pre-emptive Strikes
Saul Landau
Should Limbaugh Do Time?
Ted Honderich
Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany
Thomas Nagy
Saving the Army of Peace
Christopher
Brauchli
Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Archives of Terror
Diane
Christian
Evil Acts & Evil Actors
Muqtedar Khan
Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq
John Feffer
The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula
Brian Cloughley
Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies
Benjamin
Dangl
and Kathryn Ledebur
An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia
Karyn
Strickler
Down
with Big Brother's Spying Eyes
Noah Leavitt
Legal Globalization
John Stanton
Hitler's Ghost Haunts America
Mickey
Z.
War of the Words
Adam Engel
Tractatus Ridiculous
Poets'
Basement
Curtis, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Project Last Stand
October
24, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft's
War on Greenpeace
Lenni Brenner
The Demographics of American Jews
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Rockets,
Napalm, Torpedoes and Lies: the Attack on the USS Liberty Revisited
Sarah Weir
Cover-up of the Israeli Attack on the US Liberty
David
Krieger
WMD Found in DC: Bush is the Button
Mohammed Hakki
It's Palestine, Stupid!: Americans and the Middle East
Harry
Browne
Northern
Ireland: the Agreement that Wasn't
October
23, 2003
Diane
Christian
Ruthlessness
Kurt Nimmo
Criticizing Zionism
David Lindorff
A General Theory of Theology
Alan Maass
The Future of the Anti-War Movement
William
Blum
Imperial
Indifference
Stew Albert
A Memo
October
22, 2003
Wayne
Madsen
Religious
Insanity Runs Rampant
Ray McGovern
Holding
Leaders Accountable for Lies
Christopher
Brauchli
There's
No Civilizing the Death Penalty
Elaine
Cassel
Legislators
and Women's Bodies
Bill Glahn
RIAA
Watch: the New Morality of Capitalism
Anthony Arnove
An Interview with Tariq Ali
October 21, 2003
Uri Avnery
The
Beilin Agreement
Robert Jensen
The Fundamentalist General
David
Lindorff
War Dispatch from the NYT: God is on Our Side!
William S. Lind
Bremer is Deaf to History
Bridget
Gibson
Fatal Vision
Alan Haber
A Human Chain for Peace in Ann Arbor
Peter
Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Hanging of Thomas Russell
October
20, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Chile's
Failed Economy: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Chris
Floyd
Circus Maximus: Arnie, Enron and Bush Maul California
Mark Hand
Democrats Seek to Disappear Chomsky
& Nader
John &
Elaine Mellencamp
Peaceful
World
Elaine
Cassel
God's
General Unmuzzled
October
18 / 19, 2003
Robert
Pollin
Clintonomics:
the Hollow Boom
Gary Leupp
Israel, Syria and Stage Four in the Terror War
Saul Landau
Day of the Gropenfuhrer
Bruce Anderson
The California Recall
John Gershman
Bush in Asia: What a Difference a Decade Makes
Nelson P. Valdes
Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade"
Kurt Nimmo
Shock Therapy and the Israeli Scenario
Tom Gorman
Al Franken and Al-Shifa
Brian
Cloughley
Public Propaganda and the Iraq War
Joanne Mariner
A New Way to Kill Tigers
Denise
Low
The Cancer of Sprawl
Mickey Z.
The Reverend of Doom
John Chuckman
US Missiles for Israeli Nukes?
George Naggiar
A Veto of Public Diplomacy
Alison
Weir
Death Threats in Berkeley
Benjamin Dangl
Bolivian Govt. Falling Apart
Ron Jacobs
The Politics of Bob Dylan
Fidel Castro
A Review of Garcia Marquez's Memoir
Adam Engel
I Hope My Corpse Gives You the Plague
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert, Guthrie and Greeder
October
17, 2003
Stan Goff
Piss
On My Leg: Perception Control and the Stage Management of War
Newton
Garver
Bolivia
in Turmoil
Standard
Schaefer
Grocery Unions Under Attack
Ben Terrall
The Ordeal of the Lockheed 52
Ron Jacobs
First Syria, Then Iran
David
Lindorff
Michael
Moore Proclaims Mumia Guilty
October
16, 2003
Marjorie
Cohn
Bush
Gunning for Regime Change in Cuba
Gary Leupp
"Getting Better" in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
The US Press and Israel: Brand Loyalty and the Absence of Remorse
Rush Limbaugh
The 10 Most Overrated Athletes of All Time
Lenni
Brenner
I
Didn't Meet Huey Newton. He Met Me
Website of the Day
Time Tested Books
October
15, 2003
Sunil
Sharma / Josh Frank
The
General and the Governor: Two Measures of American Desperation
Forrest
Hylton
Dispatch
from the Bolivian War: "Like Animals They Kill Us"
Brian
Cloughley
Those
Phony Letters: How Bush Uses GIs to Spread Propaganda About Iraq
Ahmad
Faruqui
Lessons
of the October War
Uri Avnery
Three
Days as a Living Shield
Website
of the Day
Rank and File: the New Unity Partnership Document
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The
New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor
October 14, 2003
Eric Ridenour
Qibya
& Sharon: Anniversary of a Massacre
Elaine
Cassel
The
Disgrace That is Guantanamo
Robert
Jensen
What the "Fighting Sioux" Tells Us About White People
David Lindorff
Talking Turkey About Iraq
Patrick
Cockburn
US Troops Bulldoze Crops
VIPS
One Person Can Make a Difference
Toni Solo
The CAFTA Thumbscrews
Peter
Linebaugh
"Remember
Orr!"
Website
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Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
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Wendell
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Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
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A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
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The
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Francis Boyle
Impeach
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October
29, 2003
Every Day, One KIA
On
the Iraq War Casualty Figures
By GARY LEUPP
As of mid-day, EST, October 25, 2003, 343 U.S.
troops had officially died in Iraq since the war of aggression,
based on lies, began March 20. 138 were killed during the conventional
war (the term I use for want of a better one to distinguish it
from the guerrilla war raging since), the war of which
Bush spake: "Mission Accomplished" on May 1. In the
interim, 205 more have died. These figures include soldiers who
died due to accidents, sickness, and suicide, as well as combat
deaths. Here's the
pattern:
| |
Killed in Action |
Accident &
other |
Total Dead |
| Mar.
20 / April 30 |
115 (83%) |
23 (17%) |
138 |
| May
1 / Oct. 25 |
107 (52%) |
98 (48%) |
205 |
| Total to
Oct 25 |
222 (65%) |
121 (35%) |
343 |
There were relatively few losses from
accidents or non-combat causes during the conventional war. But
those have now come to total about half the total deaths. Of
course, war-zone stress and fatigue can cause accidents, and
even cause soldiers to kill themselves. (The
suicide rate among U.S. troops in the present conflict is abnormally
high.) Accidents happen anywhere, and increase with the mere
passage of time. The conventional war was a six-week affair,
whereas the occupation has gone on almost six months, so you'd
expect a lot more "accidental" deaths during the latter
period. If we look at the daily averages we see no change in
their frequency.
| |
KIA (daily) |
Accidents (daily) |
Total (daily
ave) |
| Mar
20 - April 30 |
2.74 |
.55 |
3.29 |
| May
1 - Oct. 25 |
.60 |
.55 |
1.15 |
| Total (220
Days) |
1.00 |
.55 |
1.55 |
During the conventional war, there was
one U.S. combat death every 9 hours. That figure plummeted to
one per 149 hours in May, but then rose dramatically. Official
military figures
indicate the following pattern:
|
Month |
Deaths |
Deaths per Hour |
| May |
5 |
(1 per 149) |
| June |
18 |
(1 per 40) |
| July |
28 |
(1 per 27) |
| August |
13 |
(1 per 57) |
| September |
17 |
(1 per 42) |
| October
(1/24) |
24 |
(1 per 24) |
| Total
/ Average |
105 |
(1 per
40) |
(I get this breakdown from the Defense
Department's description of causes of death. My total here is
105, rather than 107; some of the descriptions are vague and
I err on the side of understating KIAs.) Plainly the resistance
grew steadily into July, faltered somewhat thereafter but has
regained virulence this month, which will in all probability
be the bloodiest yet for the occupation forces.
* * *
(Later) BBC reports a 108th U.S. combat
death today, October 25.
Just 7 more to go and the guerrilla war will have claimed
more U.S. combat deaths than the conventional war. "The
situation is improving on a daily basis inside Iraq," pronounced
President Bush earlier this month. (But then he declared
matter-of-factly, aboard Air Force One on June 4, "I'm not
very analytical. You
know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about
why I do things.")
In his now famous "leaked
memo," Secretary of "Defense" Donald Rumsfeld
opined that the U.S. could "win in Afghanistan and Iraq,"
but "it will be a long, hard slog." (He later
told the press he didn't mean "slog" in the sense,
"to walk or progress with a slow, heavy pace; plod: slog
across the swamp..." such as one finds the word defined
in the American Heritage Dictionary. Rather, he meant
to "hit or strike hard ... to assail violently," such
as "slog" is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Plainly he does not want to plod through a quagmire (although
he is). He wants to kill off the Iraqi resistance, using American
youth and whatever mercenary foreign forces he can muster to
violently assail (and Bush might add, "smite")
to his satisfaction.
Problem is, the
troops aren't much into it.
Morale is low, many feeling used and abused and lied
to and betrayed. They're the ones slogging it out, losing
limbs, losing minds, committing acts that will haunt them forever.
The dry statistics cited above can't convey their hell, but merely
affirm how consistently the Terror War burns---mostly, so far,
the wrong people: Afghan and Iraqi civilians, soldiers doing
what they most legitimately do (defend their countries from invasion),
and soldiers dispatched to do what they should not do (kill and
die and get maimed to create empire for men who find all this
well worth the effort).
* * *
Sunday morning, October 26. One more
U.S. troop dead, in the attack by as many as eight small rockets
on the Al-Rasheed Hotel. 26 days of October so far, 26 combat
deaths. Still a few days to go to hit the July level by Halloween.
Deputy Secretary of "Defense" Paul Wolfowitz was in
the building at the time, but emerged unhurt. Looking shaken
at his press conference afterwards, he called the resistance
fighters who had hit and struck hard and smitten and assailed
the occupation "criminals" "terrorists" and
"losers." "This terrorist act will not deter us
from completing our mission," he
declared, "to protect the American people from this
kind of terrorism."
Bold words from the tireless proponent
of the war on Iraq, which the world finds criminal, the Iraqis
find terrorist, and the Bushites appear to be losing.
* * *
(Later.) A friend has emailed me a report
by veteran reporter Robert Fisk from Iraq, noting a "near-epidemic
of indiscipline, suicides and loose talk" among the troops.
He quotes Captain Christopher Cirino
of the 82nd Airborne in Fallujah referring frankly to the "local
freedom fighters" among the enemy. Fisk also quotes a U.S.
military policemen in the town as saying ("with astonishing
candour"): "We shouldn't be here and we should never
have been sent here. And maybe you can tell me: why were we sent
here?" Wolfowitz might wish to discipline these winners
(not eager to die) for validating the losers and slandering,
by such loose talk, their victorious mission, Iraqi Freedom.
Gary Leupp
is a professor of History at Tufts University and coordinator
of the Asian Studies Program.
He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for Oct. 25 / 26, 2003
Robert
Pollin
The
US Economy: Another Path is Possible
Jeffrey St. Clair
Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China
James
Bunn
Plotting
Pre-emptive Strikes
Saul Landau
Should Limbaugh Do Time?
Ted Honderich
Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany
Thomas Nagy
Saving the Army of Peace
Christopher
Brauchli
Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Archives of Terror
Diane
Christian
Evil Acts & Evil Actors
Muqtedar Khan
Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq
John Feffer
The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula
Brian Cloughley
Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies
Benjamin
Dangl
and Kathryn Ledebur
An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia
Karyn
Strickler
Down
with Big Brother's Spying Eyes
Noah Leavitt
Legal Globalization
John Stanton
Hitler's Ghost Haunts America
Mickey
Z.
War of the Words
Adam Engel
Tractatus Ridiculous
Poets'
Basement
Curtis, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Project Last Stand
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