American Casualties Skyrocket in Iraq
by Jeff Davis
Every time there is a temporary lull in attacks on American troops in Iraq, the neocons scream in triumph the occupation has “turned the corner” and “we’ve got the insurgents on the run.” Then the next week there’s another spike in the American death toll. But October of 2006 may yet go down as the bloodiest yet in the 43 months of the war. At the time of this writing there are over sixty American dead, and the month still has another two weeks to run.
According to MSNBC, “The U.S. command said seven American troops died in fighting [around the northern Iraqi city of Balad] a day earlier. That raised the U.S. toll to 58 killed in the first two weeks of October, a pace that if continued would make the month the worst for coalition forces since 107 U.S. and 10 British soldiers died in January 2005.” Make a note of that: 107 American dead is the record Hadji Reb has to beat for October of this year, 117 if you count the British dead. We’re well on our way to suffering a record loss. (more…)