The Surge is Working?

News item from the BBC caught my attention:

Two bombs in busy Baghdad animal markets have killed at least 64 people.

An Iraqi official said the devices were attached to two women with learning disabilities, and detonated remotely.

Maybe I've missed it, but the use of "women with learning disabilities" to likely unknowingly carry bombs to be detonated remotely is new to me. If this behavior is what the surge has produced I think the world would be better without it.

The Uncounted

Ran across this post about the death of Sfc. Anthony Raymond Wasielewski from Ladysmith WI. My father was born in Ladysmith, and that's what initially caught my attention. He's never mentioned the Wasielewskis (and I DEFINITELY would have remembered the name) so I don't assume any connection other than that my dad was born in Ladysmith...a town name I've always liked. But back to the post.

[Sfc. Wasielewski] had been injured in Iraq last May and died at his home in early October. It appeared his death was related to his comabat injuries but from the article that was not conclusive. I wondered if he would be counted as a casualty of the war. I checked Iraq Coalition Casualty Count site and found he was not listed.

Recently I checked back at the site and found that Sfc. Anthony Raymond Wasielewski is listed in a separate count of "Post Iraq Deaths Not Confirmed By the DoD".......

It seems there are several soldiers who died from wounds received in Iraq, but the DoD does not include their deaths in the official count of the soldiers killed in Iraq.

Coupled with the news that the Pentagon has underreported the number of US servicemen and women wounded in Iraq by a whopping 40%, I wonder if anyone at the Pentagon could pass a 5th grade math test.

3,454 and Counting

This Memorial Day, remember the dead, and the politicians who killed them.

Since last Memorial Day, roughly one thousand more Americans have died in this inhumane, horrible, foolish war.

In the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq, compared to 807 deaths in the previous year. And with the Baghdad security operation now 3 1/2 months old, even President Bush has predicted a difficult summer for U.S. forces.

"It could be a bloody — it could be a very difficult August," he said last week.

A "very difficult AUGUST?" What about June? July? Evidently, Bush thinks it's going to get worse.

At least 103 American troops have died in the first 26 days of May, an average of 3.96 deaths a day. At that pace, 123 troops will have died by the end of the month, nearly double the 69 who died in May 2006. And it will be the highest monthly total since 137 soldiers died in November 2004, when U.S. troops were fighting insurgents in Fallujah.

And now, according to the New York Times, terrorists trained in Iraq are starting to take their fight to other parts of the world.