The truth within the lie...

The leftwing anti-war newspaper the Washington Post has an article on how bad things are going in Iraq. they comment on how the enemy has gotten better at killing our guys, this is sad news and it is completely true. But it leaves out some facts and if you'll allow me I’ll try to help you see it.


Attacks on U.S. Troops in Iraq Grow in Leathality, Complexity

Iraqi insurgents are using increasingly sophisticated and lethal means of attack, including bigger roadside bombs that are resulting in greater numbers of American fatalities

OK so the bad guys are getting better bombs... We knew that, the President told us so, and just who is it that is giving the bad guys the better bombs, look it up dude!

A new counterinsurgency strategy has resulted in decreased civilian deaths in Baghdad but has placed thousands of additional American troops at greater risk in small outposts in the capital and other parts of the country.

So our new strategy has taken the heat off of the Iraqis, that's good news right?

"It is very clear that the number of attacks against U.S. forces is up" and that they have grown more effective in Baghdad, especially in recent weeks, said Maj. Gen. James E. Simmons,

Well yes but why are the bad guys so aggressive?

the overarching cause of May's toll is the ongoing, large-scale U.S. military operations. Simmons called the high U.S. losses in May "a very painful and heart-wrenching experience."

I see it's because our guys are on the offensive! We are in their faces and they don't like it!

The intensity of combat and the greater lethality of attacks on U.S. troops is underscored by the lower ratio of wounded to killed for May, which fell to about 4.8 to 1 -- compared with an average of 8 to 1 in the Iraq conflict,

Oh now the casualties may not be increased has much has we have been led to believe, only the bombs are getting better, 4.8 wounded to every one killed compared to the average of 8 to 1, so in February 80 killed in Iraq means about 560 wounded total of 640, compared to 132 killed last month means 501 wounded total of 633. So is this a true escalation of attacks our just better weapons? Remember we are also going into and seeking out the enemy right now. Perhaps we are the one getting better at tactics?

U.S. deaths have risen sharply in some of Baghdad's outlying regions, such as Diyala province, where Sunni and Shiite groups have escalated sectarian violence and fought back hard against American forces moving into their safe havens.

The enemy, they say, has escalated the violence, but aren’t we the ones on the move?

Insurgents are also staging carefully planned, complex ambushes and retaliatory attacks as they target U.S. troops, the officials said. While few in number, these include direct assaults on U.S. military outposts, ambushes in which American troops have been captured, and complex attacks that use multiple weapons to strike more than one U.S. target. For example, attackers will bomb a patrol and then target ground forces or aircraft that come to its aid.

Oh no this sounds dangerous what are we to do?

While the vast majority of attacks are still relatively simple and involve a single type of weapon, "clearly the trend is going in the wrong direction," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Oh so it's not the vast majority? Is it even the majority? We don't know. He says "While few in number" in the paragraph above. And who is it that shared this important information with us? We don't even know that, he's not authorized to give out this information, is he authorized to even know it? Or is this just his guess? Well let’s read further into the story to see where the trend is going.

In an attack Monday in Diyala, for example, an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter carrying two U.S. soldiers took heavy enemy fire during combat and crashed in farmland southwest of the town of Abu Saydah, about 40 miles north of Baghdad in a region where the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to establish a new stronghold.

This sounds bad...

The U.S. military scrambled Bradley Fighting Vehicles at Forward Operating Base Normandy, 19 miles from the crash, for an urgent rescue. But as the Quick Reaction Force rumbled through the rural terrain just a mile and a half from the crash site, a huge roadside bomb hit a Bradley, killing four soldiers and
wounding another four, one mortally. Suddenly, the rescue mission itself was in
peril, and helicopters rushed to evacuate the injured.

This sounds worse

Other units pushed forward to the copter crash, recovering the bodies of the pilots and killing three insurgents.

Oh our guys got their men and took out more of the bad guys, this is good see.

But back at the Bradley bomb site, where soldiers were clearing the wreckage, a second bomb exploded, killing another U.S. soldier.

Oh yea could not end on an up note could we.

U.S. commanders have long warned that more casualties would probably result from the increase of about 25,800 U.S. troops ordered by President Bush in January.

Oh yea I remember... So why is the Post talking about this like it's unexpected? Did they do this after D-Day? Or after the battle of the Bulge? No it was after Tet(sp) in Vietnam, that was when the media learned they could report defeat after a victory!

Commanders credit U.S. military operations with sharply lowering civilian deaths in Baghdad. The numbers of civilians killed and wounded as well as sectarian murders have all fallen roughly 50 percent in Baghdad in the 90 days ending in mid-May

Oh boy, good news! We have managed to cut down the attacks on civilians by half while not receiving an increase in overall casualties! So what has been happening to the bad guys during all of this?

U.S. patrols and raids have also uncovered nearly 2,500 weapons caches and killed or captured more than 20,000 insurgents, militia members and other fighters nationwide since January. Among the enemy killed or captured are more than 1,700 individual targets considered "high value," in what military officials and analysts say is an effort to eliminate leaders of enemy cells in hopes they cannot quickly be replaced.

Looks to me like they are getting hit pretty hard, now let's take the formula from above and try to figure out how many of the bad guys died in this surge? 2500 dead using the 8 to 1 wound/kill ratio. Hmm, if we keep this up we just might win this thing!

But after lying low to a degree and watching U.S. tactics, fighters are now responding and retaliating. "In February, all sides -- including al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jaish al-Mahdi -- stepped back to take the measure of the surge, and by late April and May, they stepped forward again and are aggressively testing the resolve of U.S. forces," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at Queen Mary College University of London, using the Arabic name of the Shiite Mahdi Army.

Oh oh the news was looking good again! Let’s put a damper on it, you think? And let’s think a bit about where the terrorist are getting the ideal our resolve may be weakening? from CNNThe favored Democratic presidential candidates are facing criticism after they voted against a bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military officials and analysts say the factors contributing to the increased deaths will likely not ease soon. "We are looking at a very nasty summer," Dodge said.

Because we will continue to hunt down the bad guys and kill them wherever they hide!!!

So let me fix the headline...

Attacks by U.S. Troops in Iraq Grow in Leathality, Complexity