(Occasional sobering thoughts.) Attention continues to focus on the conflict in Afghanistan.About 17,000 U.S. troops soon will join the 36,000 now in Afghanistan, pusuant to an order that President Barack Obama made on Tuesday. Although this would bring the total NATO contingent to more than 83,000, Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan, would like an additional 17,000, and predicted an engagement of "4 or 5 years":
'What this allows us to do is change the dynamics of the security situation, predominantly in southern Afghanistan, where we are, at best, stalemated, and we need additional, persistent security presence in areas that we’re not at today. ... I have to tell you that 2009 is going to be a tough year.'2008 was tough, too.
More U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan died last year than the previous year. And according to the Human Rights Unit of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in its just-released Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, 2008:
The number of Afghan civilian casualties in 2008 – at total of 2,118 – is the highest recorded since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001 .... The number of those killed last year represents an almost 40 per cent increase over 2007, when 1,523 people lost their lives due to conflict ....
In Iraq, where "U.S. military deaths ,,, plunged by two-thirds in 2008 from the previous year," fewer deaths have been reported in these last 7 weeks than in other periods we've covered. Final results are expected today in elections, held in late January, to pick local councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Here is the count in the 7 weeks since our last post: Iraq Body Count reports that between 90,682 and 99,017 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 535 and 605 deaths in the last 7 weeks. According to the U.S. Defense Department, 4,245 American servicemembers have been killed in Iraq. Total coalition fatalities: 4,563 persons. That's 28 servicemember deaths in t
he last 7 weeks, all but 2 of them Americans. As for the conflict in Afghanistan, military casualties in Afghanistan stand at 653 Americans and 426 other coalition servicemembers. That's an increase of 23 and 14, respectively, in the last 7 weeks, and a total servicemember casualty count of 1,079.
Here is the count in the 7 weeks since our last post: Iraq Body Count reports that between 90,682 and 99,017 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 535 and 605 deaths in the last 7 weeks. According to the U.S. Defense Department, 4,245 American servicemembers have been killed in Iraq. Total coalition fatalities: 4,563 persons. That's 28 servicemember deaths in t
he last 7 weeks, all but 2 of them Americans. As for the conflict in Afghanistan, military casualties in Afghanistan stand at 653 Americans and 426 other coalition servicemembers. That's an increase of 23 and 14, respectively, in the last 7 weeks, and a total servicemember casualty count of 1,079. 
