"It fills me with rage to hear about it and read about it. The pity I once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It's been eradicated by the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to be honest- I can't bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I can't bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can't bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they left behind. I can't bring myself to care because it's difficult to see beyond the horrors. I look at them and wonder just how many innocents they killed and how many more they'll kill before they go home. How many more young Iraqi girls will they rape?"
War on terror , Operation Iraqi Freedom , Operation enduring Freedom .. the list goes on .. the jargons and the phrases .. the deaths , the injuries ... the strife .. goes on ..
Operation Iraqi Freedom reminds me of the Vietnam war .. loosing grip day by day... For the administration its a question of honour, for the financial machinery its a question of raising money to support the troops, for the american public its an unnecessary war .. for the military combatant on the field this is a lost war .. its plain ridiculous when they really donot know whom they are fighting for !
For a statistician, the conclusion would be easy .. they are just numbers .. but as it turns out numbers speak ! Have a look and thou shall know.
This shows the as of today ... To get a more weiry number .. here it goes .. as on June 27,2006
Total Deaths : 2527 ( * +2 deaths pending confirmation, details not released )
Total Injured : 18490 ( unofficial 20,000 - 48,000 )
These are the official figures as posted in the DoD ( Department of Defence ) website . Looking at it would give you an idea how dreadful the numbers are ... Since the date of its inception, the war machinery has been churning out news of death like a weather data .
The business of war reporting and newspapers
How does this sound ? "Reuters: Roadside bomb kills 1 Iraqi soldier, wounds 7" .. pretty much everyday news ! ( this is a June 29 news .. not quite a headline though)
1198 days(as on June 27) from the start .. on an average 2.3 deaths per day !! 2 deaths a day ... and the news sounds so normal .. it doesnt make it to the headlines of the local newspapers anymore .. its not reading material .. casuality death doesnt make sellable news anymore .. people are tired of the same news.. News agencies are in the look out for the next sellable story .. wait for the next bad news !
Links :
The DoD daily casuality list : http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
Casuality count statistics by period : http://icasualties.org/oif/
For "keeping track" of the count .. I thought I would put a counter on my blog .. sounds inhuman .. but what worth does humanity hold in front of oil ? ... if you are interested in adding an automated script as a reminder on the daily casualities .. you can get the script from here http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/counter.php
More will be added as Operation Iraqi freedom continues ... watch this space for more updates ... and views ... ( lots of sarcasm intended )
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