As George W. Bush prepares to use his State of Union Address to again make his case for sending 21,500 more U.S. troops into the wood chipper in Iraq (and the mainstream media still seems eager to make it appear as if the majority of Americans aren't firm in outright rejecting his plan), U.S. troops suffered their third worst day since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
At least 20 American service members were killed in military operations Saturday in the deadliest day for U.S. forces in two years, including 13 who died in a helicopter crash and five slain in an attack by militia fighters in the holy city of Karbala, military officials said.
On January 25, 2005, 37 American soldiers were killed. To put today's carnage in perspective, you would have to go all the way back to the third day of the 2003 invasion, when 28 American soldiers died, to find a bloodier 24 hours for our troops.
Here's a closer look what happened:
The military gave little information on the crash of the Army Black Hawk helicopter during good weather in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias for months in the province, around the city of Baqouba.
Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle, a U.S. spokeswoman, said the cause of the crash had not been determined. Navy Capt. Frank Pascual, a member of a U.S. media relations team in the United Arab Emirates, told Al-Arabiya television that the helicopter was believed to have suffered technical troubles before going down.
Five U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday night when militia fighters attacked a provincial headquarters in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala, the military said in a statement.
The statement said "an illegally armed militia group" attacked the building with grenades, small arms and "indirect fire," which usually means mortars or rockets. The statement said three other soldiers were wounded repelling the attack.
"A meeting was taking place at the time of the attack to ensure the security of Shiite pilgrims participating in the Ashoura commemorations," said a statement from Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, deputy commander of the Multi-National Division-Baghdad.
...
Brooks said Iraqi officials and security forces as well as U.S. troops were present at the meeting, but his statement did not mention other casualties from the attack. It said the headquarters had "been secured by coalition and Iraqi security forces."
In the next few paragraphs, one might glean that this was a day of victory for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a noted target in Bush's plan. Yet that's still unclear.
Earlier, Karbala Gov. Akeel al-Khazaali had reported that U.S. troops raided the provincial headquarters looking for wanted men but left with no prisoners. But Brooks said that report was incorrect.
The general did not identify any group suspected of staging the attack, but residents reached by telephone had reported seeing military helicopters flying over the local headquarters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has been accused of playing a big role in sectarian killings, has been hit repeatedly in recent weeks by operations in which key commanders have been captured or killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops.
And, of course, there are more deaths from roadside bombs.
Also Saturday, roadside bombs killed a soldier in the capital and one in Nineveh province north of Baghdad.
Not to mention:
The U.S. military also announced that combat Friday had killed an Army soldier in Nineveh province and a Marine in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital. The Marines often delay death reports, raising the possibility that Friday's toll was higher.
Incidentally, is there a reason why "the Marines often delay death reports"? Why should a reader of this article be withheld that information? I might suspect that from the U.S. military in general. But it's news to me that this was a common enough policy of the Marines that it doesn't warrant any qualification.
Oh, and in case you were under the impression that Bush was waiting for approval, Congressional or otherwise, before sending those additional young American lambs to Iraq (something the mainstream media has often led us to believe), think again:
Meanwhile, the first reinforcements of U.S. troops under the new Bush strategy have already started to flow into the Baghdad region. A brigade of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, part of the buildup, has arrived in Baghdad and will be ready to join the fresh drive to quell sectarian violence in the capital by the first of the month, the American military said Sunday.
The 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne consists of about 3,200 soldiers who will "assist Iraqi Security Forces to clear, control and retain key areas of the capital city in order to reduce violence and to set the conditions for a transition to full Iraqi control of security in the city," the military said in a statement.
Finally, it's worth noting that if 20 Iraqis died in a 24-hour period it would be considered a respite from the usual daily slaughter, which often reaches into the hundreds. And though this was a story about a particularly deadly day for U.S. soldiers, any mention of the day's Iraqi death toll was left to the final two lines of the article:
Police reported at least 16 Iraqis slain in attacks Saturday. In addition, officials said 29 bodies were found in Baghdad and three in the northern city of Mosul, most of them showing signs of torture — a hallmark of killings by sectarian death squads.
It is this kind of matter-of-fact coverage of Iraqi loss of life that keeps so many Americans in the dark as to the unconscionable horror their people are experiencing every single day. And make no mistake about it: the underreporting of their deaths has a direct effect on feeding more of our young men and women into that wood chipper. For every U.S. article that mutters the day's Iraqi carnage in its last breaths, as though it were a passing weather update, the stark reality of this senseless war is muted and obscured.
The effect? A president has more room to maneuver. To call an escalation a "surge." To pretend this plan is new. To repeatedly propose what could only be described as a delusional suicidal strategy: "Success is our only option."
AP
20 U.S. service members killed in Iraq
By Bassem Mroue
Associated Press
Saturday Bloody Saturday
Posted by: MediaBloodhound | January 21, 2007 at 12:52 AM