[NYTr] Iraq: More than 75 US Occupation Troops KIA in August

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

As Juan Cole keeps pointing out, the press continues to swallow the
USA's big lie about troop deaths being reduced by the "surge" -- which
is nonsense. He's got a month-by-month list on his Informed Comment
blog that gives the lie to this, and someone else has prepared a chart
with the same official data, which itself probably minimizes the
numbers. The US military may be using some involved statistical
flim-flam that they're using to claim the deaths are going down that
does not rely on absolute numbers, i.e., some percentage of the total
number of US forces in the country or something like that. 

Here's Cole's month-by-toll table comparing 2007 with 2006 (data from 
http://www.Icasualties.org.):

8-2007 77     8-2006 65
7-2007 79     7-2006 43
6-2007 101    6-2006 61
5-2007 126    5-2006 69
4-2007 104    4-2006 76
3-2007 81     3-2006 31
2-2007 81     2-2006 55
1-2007 83     1-2006 62 

http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/arguments-over-night-of-living-dead-in.html


One graphical chart is here at The Washington Monthly along with an
article by Kevin Drum (and, as Cole notes there are more charts in the
Comments):
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_08/011974.php

-NY Transfer

                            ***

Granma International - Aug 30, 2007
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/agosto/vier31/36agosto.html


More than 75 U.S. dead in Iraq in August

BAGHDAD, August 30.— The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq in the
course of this month reached 75 today, with the confirmation by the
military command of another death today.

The soldier died when the vehicle in which he was traveling hit an
explosive device placed on the Divala highway in the eastern part of
the country. The individual was a member of Task Force Lightning and
the incident occurred during a military operation in the province,
according to Prensa Latina.

The number of U.S. soldiers killed since the beginning of the invasion
and subsequent occupation of Iraq in March 2003 has already reached
3,733, according to Pentagon statistics.

During the last few months onslaughts on the occupation forces have
considerably intensified. In June alone the number of attacks (3,671)
was up 7% on last May’s figures, according to official statistics.

The last four months of 2007 have been the most lethal for the U.S.
troops, with 356 deaths.

Translated by Granma International