Rising toll shows U.S. challenges
By Bradley
Graham
THE
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 — With the death yesterday of another
U.S. soldier in Iraq, the number of U.S. troops who have died there since May 1,
when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, rose to 138 -
the same number as perished during the six weeks of fighting that marked the
fall of Baghdad and its immediate aftermath, according to Pentagon records. THE
FIGURE of 138 includes not only those killed by enemy fire — called “hostile”
deaths by the Pentagon — but also those who died as a result of vehicle
accidents, drowning, medical problems or other factors unrelated to combat.
Yesterday’s casualty, for instance, involved an unidentified soldier from the
Army’s 130th Engineer Brigade who suffered a “non-hostile gunshot wound” — a
phrase that can mean suicide or the accidental discharge of a weapon. Although
the 62 deaths from hostilities since May 1 remain well below the 115 that
occurred in March and April, the combat death rate has been averaging one
soldier about every other day since Bush flew to the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
and announced that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” If that trend
continues through the end of the year, those killed in action after May 1 will
outnumber those killed in action before then.
SYMBOLIC MOMENT Yesterday’s threshold event represented a largely
symbolic moment in the grinding Iraqi conflict. But by highlighting the steadily
mounting U.S. death toll, it underscored the political challenge for the Bush
administration in sustaining a reconstruction effort that is clearly costing
more U.S. lives than winning the war did. Instead of facing gradually
diminishing resistance, which the administration had expected to find after
ousting Saddam Hussein’s government, U.S. troops have encountered increasingly
organized and violent opposition from Hussein loyalists and foreign Islamic
militants who U.S. authorities say are flowing into Iraq. The nature of the
combat also has shifted, from largely conventional warfare waged by a uniformed
Iraqi force to guerrilla-style attacks and terrorist tactics employed by shadowy
resistance groups and teams of hit-and-run fighters. “The loss of every service
member is deeply felt, and their courage and sacrifice will not be forgotten,”
said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, asked to comment on the casualty count.
“Creating a stable and secure environment for the Iraqi people is important to
the national interests of the U.S. and the international community. Our losses
only strengthen the resolve of the coalition to accomplish their vital mission.”
TELLING TRENDS U.S. Central Command, which oversees military
operations in the Persian Gulf region, has provided little information about the
reported deaths. Official announcements have tended to consist of no more than a
few sentences citing the general cause of a death and offering a cursory
description of the circumstances involved. But the announcements over time have
revealed some telling trends, particularly when compared with casualty patterns
before May 1. During the invasion and immediate aftermath, many of the U.S.
combat deaths resulted from military ambushes, artillery fire and helicopter
crashes. Since then, most soldiers have died from attacks involving
rocket-propelled grenades, small-arms fire and what the military calls
“improvised explosive devices,” or homemade bombs — all reflecting the less
conventional character of the fighting. Another significant difference is where
U.S. soldiers are dying. During the war, the bulk of the deaths took place south
of Baghdad as U.S. troops surged from Kuwait toward the Iraqi capital. In recent
months, just over half the U.S. hostile casualties have occurred in Baghdad, and
an additional quarter has come in the “Sunni triangle” bounded by Baghdad and
the towns of Ar Ramadi and Tikrit, where some of the fiercest resistance to the
U.S.-led reconstruction effort has been concentrated. During the war, too, many
deaths occurred in clusters and resulted from major individual events — an
ambush in Nasiriyah by Iraqi soldiers who pretended to surrender, for instance,
or an attack on Army vehicles that became separated from a supply convoy. But in
recent months, death reports have trickled into U.S. military headquarters in
ones and twos. On a few days, as many as three U.S. soldiers have been killed.
The worst day for U.S. deaths from hostile fire was July 26, when a grenade
thrown from the window of an Iraqi hospital took the lives of three soldiers,
and a fourth soldier died when his convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade
attack.
For the most part, there have been few pauses in the mounting death tally. The
longest period in which no combat deaths were reported was the 12-day span that
began May 14.
ARMY HIT HARDEST During the first six weeks of fighting, each branch of
service lost members, although the Army and Marines lost the most. Since May 1,
the Army has suffered nearly all the deaths from hostile action. The Navy and
the Air Force each has lost one member as a result of hostile fire. The Marine
Corps has not reported any combat deaths, although 17 Marines have died in Iraq
since May 1 from non-hostile causes. A sizable number of the Army’s deaths from
hostilities have involved reservists called up for wartime duty, including eight
members of the National Guard and five members of the Army Reserves. The
majority of soldiers killed since May 1 have been lower-ranking enlisted
members. But four officers have died from hostile fire, and so have 24
noncommissioned officers. And although more than half of the dead troops were
under 30 years old, 15 were in their thirties, one was 40 and another was 54. No
female soldiers have died from hostile fire since May 1. And no deaths in the
past four months have resulted from mistaken fire by U.S. or allied troops. Of
the deaths categorized as non-hostile, at least 22 involved vehicle accidents, a
common hazard reflecting the dangers of large-scale military operations. As many
as four deaths resulted from the accidental detonation of munitions in areas
where soldiers were working. Unspecified health problems accounted for several
deaths. One soldier was described as dying “after collapsing while eating
dinner” July 8. In three separate instances — on Aug. 8, 9 and 12 — soldiers
were found dead when others tried to wake them and discovered they were not
breathing.
Staff researchers Robert E. Thomason and Madonna Lebling contributed to this
report.