Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Heavy Fighting In Sadr City Fallujah

Juan Cole 09/08/2004

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Heavy Fighting in Sadr City, Fallujah

US Military Deaths Pass 1000

Jeff Gray of The Toronto Globe and Mail reports


The U.S. military death toll in Iraq passed 1,000 yesterday, a statistic that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called a “tragic milestone” and that some analysts said could play an important role in the race for the White House.

The tally pales in comparison to the number of Iraqis killed (estimated at between 12,000 and 14,000) and to the U.S. body count at the height of hostilities in Vietnam. But it is three times the number of American dead from the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

By last night, 998 U.S. troops and three civilians working for the U.S. military had been killed in the war, for a total of 1,001.

The tally was compiled by the Associated Press from Pentagon and family records plus reports from journalists in Iraq.

About 7,000 other Americans have been wounded.

I would wager that very few American newspapers mention the estimate of 12,000 Iraqis dead in the war so far when they report the number of US military dead. (Note that the 12000 figure refers solely to civilian combat deaths and does not include Iraqi soldiers killed).

American television news very seldom shows wounded Iraqis in the hospital after an American strike, something that is a staple of Arab satellite t.v. Indeed, the US public is not being given a full view of the fighting in Iraq. I just don’t see that many mentions of the US bombing Iraqi cities, and don’t remember seeing much footage of this bombing or its aftermath. For the US to bomb inhabited city quarters in a country that it occupies strikes me as problematic. For all the talk of precision hits, civilians are inevitably harmed.

Heavy fighting between US forces and the Mahdi Army militia left 40 dead and 270 wounded in East Baghdad.

US forces bombed Fallujah from the air on Tuesday and Wednesday. , according to AP. Al-Jazeerah showed footage of the aftermath of the battle at Fallujah.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....