(Occasional sobering thoughts.) On this 5th anniversary of the day that the U.N. Security Council handed to the United States and Britain control of Iraq (see post below), here's the count of casualties there and in Afghanistan in the 4 weeks since we last reported.According to Iraq Body Count, between 84,040 and 91,703 Iraqi women, children, and men have died in the conflict since March 2003. That's an increase of between 1,053 and 1,182 deaths in the last 4 weeks.
According to the U.S. Defense Department, 4,079 American servicemembers have been killed in Iraq. Total coalition fatalities: 4,391 persons. That's 37 servicemember deaths in the last 4 weeks, all but 3 of them Americans. Military casualties in the conflict in
Afghanistan stand at 503 Americans and 310 other coalition servicemembers, an increase of 9 and 5, respectively, the last 4 weeks.
