Outside Baghdad, ‘Surge’ Failing Badly

Highly touted increase in U.S. troops impetus for surge in civilian casualties

American Free Press, Issue No. 3, January 21, 2008

By Richard Walker

While the Pentagon and White House, as well as many in Congress declare the “surge” in Iraq a success, little is said about the fact that as many as 24,000 Iraqi civilians died in 2007, representing the second highest casualty figure since the invasion in 2003.

Most of the dead were from areas outside of the capital, Baghdad, where the surge has been concentrated, obscuring a drastic increase in violence in other parts of the country. While the surge has reduced high levels of sectarian deaths in the capital, there is a drastic increase in killings elsewhere.

The problem with representing the surge as a major success is that the overall picture of life in the country is obscured and the level of human tragedy minimized.

In comparing last year’s death toll with that of 9-11, Iraqi civilian casualties in 2007 were 800% higher. That does not include civilians injured and maimed for life, or the dead and wounded within the ranks of the U.S. military and its coalition partners. In 2007, there were close to 900 U.S. military deaths and 5,648 wounded. Forty-seven British soldiers were killed. Those figures hid another statistic: the number of soldiers evacuated from Iraq for treatment related to behavioral and psychiatric issues.

Some reports suggested that close to 1,000 soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated at the Army medical facilities at Landsthul in Germany. Most were from Iraq and fell into the category of victims of “mental trauma.”

Continued . . .