US millitary takes 4000th Iraq fatality

The US military death toll for Iraq has now hit 4000 today after the death of a further four soldiers in the chaotic city of Baghdad.

All four soldiers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in south Baghdad late on Sunday; a US military statement said that another soldier was wounded by the blast.

Bush offered his condolences to the bereaved families saying "I offer our deepest sympathies to their families," vowing "to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain," on what he called a "day of reflection" honouring the US war dead.

The chaotic conflict is now in its sixth year, has killed 4,000 US soldiers and wounded more than 29,000, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org. Which means it is the bloodiest conflict the US has faced since Vietnam. The US dead includes 102 servicewomen. Of all 4000 fatalities most were inflicted via Roadside bombs and gunfire was the second biggest killer. According to the website, November 2004 was the deadliest month for the American military in Iraq. It lost 137 troops that month when it launched a massive assault to take back the city of Fallujah from insurgents.

The Iraqi civilian death toll is even higher with the most conservative estimates put at 350,000 dead and some estimating one million or more deaths. This war has caused great bloodshed among the Iraqi people most of which caused by US attack, the sectarian strife caused by the power vacuum left after Saddam's regime capitulated and the feeble power of the Iraqi government in administering the ailing nation.

The icasualties.org website is based only on published reports and shows that around 8,000 members of the Iraqi security forces have also been killed since the March 2003 invasion.

At least 97 percent of the deaths occurred after Bush announced the end of "major combat" in Iraq on May 1, 2003 aboard a US aircraft carrier. Bush was definitely caught unawares by the insurgency, the sectarian carnage that brought Iraq on her knees and the high intensity fighting that ensued later. The US military has become caught between a raging anti-US insurgency and sectarian strife unleashed after Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime was overthrown. Now the US military is in a more advantageous position with troop numbers being bolstered by the "surge" and Sunni militia now joining the Iraqi security forces furthermore a cease fire with the Shia Mehdi army has reduced US fatalities substantially and so far this year only 96 US soldiers have perished as compared with last years mammoth 901 (again according to AFP).

For Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama the Iraq issue and the ever-increasing death toll is a major issue for the two contenders of the democrat nominee for the US presidential election. Both want to bring US troops home but with the emerging nightmare that is Iraq we might wait some time for stability and the ending of this bitter sectarian bloodshed.

"It is past time to end this war that should never have been waged by bringing our troops home, and finally pushing Iraq's leaders to take responsibility for their future," Obama said in a statement on Monday. Clinton also wanted to bring the troops home."I have looked those men and women in the eye. I have made that promise. And I intend to honour it by bringing a responsible end to this war, and bringing our troops home safely," she said.

The deadliest war for the US military, apart from the two world wars, has been Vietnam, with 58,000 soldiers killed between 1964 and 1973, an average of 26 a day. On average just over two US soldiers die in Iraq every day. While the Iraqis lose many many more with an average per day loss of 200 by the most conservative estimates over the 5 years and the higher estimates at 550 a day which is essentially a massacre of collosal proportions.

The icasualties.org statistics show that the deadliest year for the US military in Iraq was 2007 when 901 troops died after the so called "surge" which saw an extra 30,000 soldiers deployed in a bid to end the violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, but has indirectly escalated the violence as the data shows.That figure compares with 486 deaths in 2003, the first year of the conflict, 849 in 2004, 846 in 2005 and 822 in 2006. This year so far has resulted in 96 deaths.

American commanders in Iraq acknowledge that putting extra troops on the ground has exposed them to more attacks, but they also claim it has helped curb violence and that attacks have dropped 60 percent since last June.

Over the past year attacks have fallen sharply in Anbar after local Sunni militia’s joined forces with the US military to fight Al-Qaeda.