(Occasional sobering thoughts.) It is hard these days to know where to count:► Headlines report that the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 350 children, women, and men since Israeli air strikes began on Monday.
► In a state we've discussed as a 3d front in the U.S. campaign against terrorism, a Taliban attack left "[m]ore than 30 people ... killed and more than two dozen wounded" in Pakistan Sunday, as voters waited to cast ballots in a legislative election in Sharibandi, in the northwest of the country. As might be expected from an attack on a school, some of these victims also were children.
► At a Catholic church in eastern Congo near the Sudan border, 189 persons, mostly children and women, were massacred the day after Christmas, in an attack that U.N. officials have blamed on the Lords Resistance Army.
► South of the U.S. border, 6,836 children, women, and men have died since Mexico's declaration in 2007 of a war on drugs in the country. The Los Angeles Times notes,
That's more than the U.S. fatalities in the Iraq war.
Despite this tragic competition, "...and counting..." will keep to its original task: as best as possible, keeping count of the civilian and servicemember casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are, of course, the 2 theaters of combat in this U.S. troops are directly engaged. The 1st is 1 from which President-Elect Barack Obama repeatedly has pledged to disengage by means of U.S. troop withdrawal. This may occur, however, as military commitments in the 2d increase, as stories like this one indicate. It's a prospect that this IntLawGrrl hopes is undertaken with the height of caution.
With those thoughts in mind, here is the count in the 6 weeks since our last post:
Iraq Body Count reports that between 90,147 and 98,412 Iraqi women, children, and men have died in the conflict in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, representing an increase of between 1,200 and 1,327 deaths in the last 6 weeks. According to the U.S. Defense Department, 4,219 American servicemembers have been killed in Iraq. Total coalition fatalities: 4,535 persons. That's 26 servicemember deaths in the last 6 weeks, all but 2 of them Americans.
As for the conflict in Afghanistan, military casualties in Afghanistan stand at 630 Americans and 412 other coalition servicemembers. That's an increase of 4 and 31, respectively, in the last 6 weeks, and a total servicemember casualty count 1,042. As for civilians and nonmilitary personnel, numbers are harder to come by. The New York Times reports:
A day after a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people, including 13 schoolchildren, in a region bordering Pakistan, a new rash of bombings shook different areas of Afghanistan on Monday, killing two civilians north of Kabul and two more in Kandahar Province.
That news comes fast upon other headlines that give little comfort:► Violence against Afghan children rising, U.N. says
► UN chief in Afghanistan: Protect civilians
Now there's a thought.
