05 October 2005 Blog Home : October 2005 : Permalink
HADITHA, Iraq - U.S. troops pushed through streets sown with bombs Tuesday in their biggest operation this year in western Iraq, seeking to retake three Euphrates River towns from al-Qaida insurgents. At least five U.S. service members have been killed in the fighting.
As with the earlier U.S. offensive ? code named Iron Fist ? it appeared many fighters may have slipped away beforehand.
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Operation River Gate was notable for the strongest participation this year by Iraqi troops ? U.S. commanders said hundreds were involved ? at a time of deep concerns about their readiness.
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Previous Ramadans saw a spike in violence in Iraq ? especially suicide attacks, in part because some Islamic extremists believe those who die in combat during Ramadan are especially blessed.
If it weren't for reading places like Belmont Club I'd be convinced that all was lost, and I have no doubt that is why support for the war is slipping amongst those who don't read blogs. However I am beginning to wonder whether Messrs Blair and Bush, despite relentless negativity and despite misteps, are not about to reap a dramatic victory. Despite the press continually harping on the casualty figuresThe deaths in the two operations, along with that of a soldier shot in the western town of Taqaddum, raised to at least 1,940 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
the total US deaths (1940) works out at an average of just over 2/day over the last two and a half years and if you include all coalition forces it is still less than 3/day. For a war zone this is remarkably low by any rational standard. Moreover despite the war, which even the MSM grudgingly admits seems to be being sponsored by neighbouring governments, the progress of Iraq towards becoming a free-market democracy proceeds apace. Moreover it seems like the foreign fighters are quitting (link via Alphapatriot). Now Al Reuters tries to spin this as them distributing their training back to other countries, but it seems pretty clear that they wouldn't be redeploying in a reverse direction if they hadn't been defeated in Fallujah, Tal Afar etc. They may indeed bring their car-bomb experience back with them but they are bound to also bring back the message that you can't fight the Americans and win. Whatever spin they try to put on it the clear fact is that in both Afghanistan and Iraq the Islamists have lost big time.