by Larry Johnson

If you caught the intellectual lightweight, Michael O-Hanlon, on CNN this morning you would have been treated to a masterful display of toadying and sucking up that puts the “sick” in sycophant. O-Hanlon continues to insist that his DOD arranged and controlled trip this summer to limited areas of Iraq proved beyond doubt that the surge is working and we are progressing in Iraq.

Of course his confident claims are not attended by any benchmarks or empirical evidence. So as a public service we will take a look at the specifics in Iraq and you can judge for yourself whether or not we are making progress and whether or not we are getting value for our money and the blood of our sons and daughters.

U.S. Casualties:
Compare the current number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq with previous eight month periods for 2006 and 2005. For the first eight months of 2007 there have been 735 American troops killed and 4430 wounded. This is significantly higher than the casualty rate in 2005 or 2006. We have 1000 more dead and wounded this year than last year for the period January-August. The following chart tells the factual story (source, icasualties.org):

The Iraqi Population:
Higher casualties, by themselves, tell us nothing about progress one way or another. One could make the case that because of the casualties the situation in Iraq has stabilized and Iraqis are rushing to celebrate the “new peace”. Sadly, that is wishful thinking.

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