Another grim milestone in the Iraq war is here. Iraq Coalition Casualties reports there are 998 999 U.S. casualties as of Sept. 7 at 11:45 p.m. local Baghdad time (GMT +0300). By the time you read this, there may be 1,000 or more U.S. dead in Iraq.
[UPDATE 12:08 local Baghdad time: And it's here. CNN and "AP":http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040907/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=2100 are reporting 1,000 are dead.]
According to my own number-crunching, if the attack in Fallujah -- which "killed 7 U.S. Marines and three Iraqi National Guardsmen":http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040907/ts_washpost/a64921_2004sep6&cid=1802&ncid=1473 -- had not occurred yesterday, America would have seen its 1,000 death in Iraq right around ... Sept. 11. As it is, it looks like this morbid statistic will sadly come sooner rather than later.
On a sidenote -- although a related one -- it's becoming more and more dangerous to work here. The feeling of tension and menace while traveling around is palpable. The threat of kidnapping is being driven home to us by the limbo in which Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, the two French journalists, linger still. One of the reasons for a sense of fear is the retrenchment of the U.S. forces in Baghdad. They're not around as much, not as visible. In their place are the Iraqi security services such as the Iraqi National Guard and the Iraqi Police.
While it's a good thing politically -- for someone, I hope -- that the Americans are adopting a lower profile, it's unnerving, considering the hostility the Iraqi police have been showing to foreigners. I'm not just "talking about Najaf":http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000810.php, either. I've heard credible stories of the police holding guns to photographers' heads and raids on foreigners houses that led to children being knocked unconscious, along with money and phones stolen. And that's here in Baghdad.
I'm due for a break this month for about two weeks and man, do I need it.
1,000
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About me
Hi there! Thanks for stopping in. I'm Christopher Allbritton, former AP and New York Daily News reporter. In 2002, I went stumbling around Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern part of Iraq outside Saddam's direct control, looking for stories. (Some might call it "looking for trouble.") In March 2003, I made it back in time for the war, becoming the Web's first fully reader-funded journalist-blogger. With the support of thousands of readers, we raised almost $15,000. You can read my dispatches here. It was one of the moments in journalism when everything worked. It was a grand -- and successful -- experiment in independent journalism. In 2004, I moved to Iraq, where I would spend the next two years. It was a raucous, scary and exciting place with a lot of news going on. But I've since moved on to Beirut and the wider region. I now report for a variety of outlets.
GlobalSecurity has the number at 1,031 with wounder at 7,000.
No mention of the Iraqi civilian or military deaths.
And still no WMD or links to Al-Qaeda.
thanks Chris,
Godspeed and all that and then some!
Don’t be a hero. Take care…
Chris,
I know you’re not gonna like the sound of this, since i’ve enjoyed your posts, but….it’s time to come home, dude. Hug your mother. You’ve survived, you’ve reported. You’d be infinitely more help to this cause by coming back to the U.S. and spreading the word of what you’ve seen in person. Life is too precious to spend it in a situation you can contribute nothing positive to anymore. Search deep and there’s no way you can deny the ego part of why you’re there — it’s a rush, makes you feel special, unlike the complacent american we’re all raised to be. You’d never be there if you’d been raised in violence, or even in serious dysfunction. Now you’ve experienced it. Time to call it an assignment. Unless, of course, you’re addicted to the dangerous environment, which i suspect. And that is something entirely more destructive. It’s time to let the Iraqis sort this out for themselves. It’s time to let Iraqis report their own news. But they’ll descend into civil war? Guess what? We’ve made that inevitable by deciding to use violence instead of intellect. Some form of civil war IS going to happen — is already HAPPENING. Nothing you or I or anyone EXCEPT THE IRAQIS can do to prevent it.
Give your mother a present. Come home.
Get on home! The trajectory for the new Iraq is down, down, down.
I echo the sentiments of those posted before me,we love your posts but enough is enough go home,you have done enough
Nana
Chris-
I met you in Beirut when you were trying to decide whether to relocate to Cairo or Beirut.
I’m in Cairo now and it’s a lot more calm than I thought. And you can’t beat the cost-of-living.
Thank you all for your expressions of concern, but I’m committed to this. I’m not here to advance a cause; I’m here to report on the news. This is exactly where I need to be, career-wise . Just a break, and I’ll be OK. But thank you all for your concern.
Hi, Jeff! Good to hear from you again.
Why is it that here in the States, we get different figures on the casualties in Iraq. Just now, the figure that the AP has given at this very moment is 988. What is really going on? Could it be that the DOD casualties subtract those soldiers who weren’t killed by hostile fire? I think any death that has not been reported is one that is trying to be minimalized or covered up in some way. Anyway, I believe you are doing the right thing and for that I give you much thanks.
Peace
Thanks for your commitment and your determination, and have a good two-week break whenever you get it.
Thanks for your perseverance in danger. I’ll be praying for you.
I think the Time article was a softball article, and that’s why I sought your website out. What you have to say in this blog is very telling- and not anti-war to my ears. It’s real, not just a puff piece with the inconvenient truth filtered out (that we know of). It’s important to tell the truth and I think most of this is accurate- it is certainly sincere. I still think the U.S. is doing the right thing in Iraq- and so are you.
But perhaps we all see and read what we want to…
Get out while the getting is good, unless you prefer clinging to the skids of the last chopper out of the Green Zone.
Hi, Rob— the discrepancy is probably because AP is only reporting the named dead, while Iraqi Coalition Casulaties, which was praised by a U.S. LTC I spoke with today, includes those not yet named pending notification of their next of kin. There’s a lag in syncing up those numbers because the NoK are sometimes unavailable, but the DoD puts out notices like, “3 soldiers killed in al-Anbar Province…”
A tip of the hat and a hard swallow: your work is invaluable and I’m as inclined as the others to beg you to stay safe.
A good break, somewhere with no gunshots and good massages.
It does reek of ego, your staying—i agree with the others.
For a responsible count of dead Iraqi civilians go to Iraqibodycount.net
As if the numbers ever “made” the story…
That should read: www.iraqbodycount.net
Nearly 14,000 Iraqi civilians (verified civilians) have been killed this time so far. And that doesn’t begin to count those bleeding out of their ears from DU contamination, or the American soldiers with “Gulf War Syndrome” for that matter.
How’s that for “grim.”
www.moveon.org
chris - have you heard that some soldier blogs are now being censored and need to be prescreened by higher ups in the chain of command? Apparently an NPR story on these blogs, which has some links to specific sites, brought soldier blogs to their commanders attention and some did not like what they saw. Claims of potential secret information leaking out in the blogs that would endanger soldiers. A few I used to read have now quit bloging, refusing to be censored and have completely erased all their entries even though the site is still there. Wonder if the pro-Bush soldier sites suffer the same scrutiny? Thoughts??? By the way I look forward to your entries which give us the sense of the feel “on the ground” versus the distance and “objectively” I find in the traditional media.
Chris, you are my favorite source on Iraq, and your sidenote shows just how in touch you are.
What do you think of the two Italian aid workers abducted by gunmen wearing Iraqi National Guard uniforms?
Regarding numbers of dead, last week, during the Republican convention in New York, a group of theater people against the war organized a reading of the names of those who have died in Iraq since the war started, Iraqis as well as “coalition forces” and others, like journalists. The readers were volunteers, and the readings took place at St. Mark’s Church on Second Avenue, Monday-Thursday, 6-8 p.m. I was one of the volunteers on Thursday night, and I don’t know how many names were actually read, but the group is still collecting names, especially of Iraqis, since those names tend not to be in U.S. news reports. Karen Malpede is the creator of this event, called “The Naming Project” (which included stories about the dead as well as simply reading names, and ages when known), and the group is thinking of continuing, holding such readings in other venues. Her e-mail is kmalpede@earthlink.net, if you’re interested.
Chris, I trust you’ll know when it’s time to get out, and that you’ll guess right! Meanwhile, it’s important to have journalists like you out there to give us a feel for what’s happening and some sense of what to balance the other media against. Be careful and have a good break wherever you go. Massages certainly sound like an excellent idea!
Chris, the situation in my opinion is getting way out of hand. I am Iraqi and I by no means am happy about whats going on. The Iraqi government is just protecting itself and does jack to help put a stop to this chaos. I keep telling my husband to get out but he says its for the people, he will do as much as he can to help but is it worth taking that risk? I love Iraq dont get me wrong, and I too want Iraqis to live in a democratic society but you have to remember those inside lived 35 years, 35 years under fear, it wont take 18 months to fix all that. More power has to be used, the carrot isnt working so give them the stick now, and by that I dont mean the innocent Iraqis who are minding their business, but those of the mehdi miltia and those criminal kidnappers,enough is enough.
You also mentioned about the Iraqi police raiding foreign journalists, can you be more specific?Do you mean foreign as in non -iraqi arabs?or non arabs?cuz theres a huge difference, since all the arab funded stations are with the insurgency and the so called resistence and are encouraging terrorism.
Take care
I admire that you are there, reporting what you see. I respect our troops that are over there doing what they have to do even more. In the big picture, only 1000 americans have died so far. compare that to previous wars where 100 000’s have died and even more missing and wounded. I believe what we are doing is for the greater good. it is going to take years for Iraq to rebuild and become a stable nation. It cannot happen over night. People need to keep in mind that even though our generation is used to instant results, like my post here, it will be up in about less than 1 second. a war, however, even in modern day, still takes time. some things cant be fixed by pressing a button. nothing good will happen overnight. we need to stop focusing on how many have died, and start seeing how many we have saved.
Chris
PLease be careful. Baghdad sounds like it becoming more and more unruly. A career is one thing, your life is another!
I have a serious question for you….do you feel that you are toooooo close to actual events to truly “sense” or “feel” what is accurately going on in the central capitol? I base the question upon your earlier reporting and statements about the apparent demise of Sadr and his Mahdi army…are they (sadr + mahdi) becoming a political party like Hizbollah??
dju
Salam,
May God bless the innocent Irakis who died in this injust war.
As for the treatment of journalists, thanks again for Uncle Sam for all those liberties he brang in his bag.
Yo Chris, got some questions, if you can answer them:
1) What is the estimated total of Iraqi casualties so far? If known, what is the total wounded and hospitalized? This figure is never allowed to surface here in the American so-called media (propaganda machine)…
2) How many guerilla/insurgents/militants are there? Everytime the Pentagon gives us a figure like only a hundred, then only a thousand, then only a couple thousand, it ends up that more and more insurgents wind up getting killed from the latest US offensive. Is it to the point that anyone who happens to throw a rock at an American tank gets blown away and retrospectively called an insurgent?
3) Did Al-Sistani really have a heart attack; is that the real reason why he was flown out of Iraq?
4) Why has there been no more news on the ‘rabble-rousing’ cleric Moqtada al-Sadr? Surely, he hasn’t converted to American ‘democracy’ yet, has he?
5) Is the US military still using depleted uranium in its tank shells and bullet rounds, and has anybody asked the Iraqis if they appreciate getting shot at with little tokens from Nagasaki?
6) Um, if major combat operations have ended (as one man put it quite frankly), why is the US using fighter planes to bomb (I guess not even in coordinated ‘precision’ strikes anymore) whole blocks in cities. Err, aren’t there people who live in those buildings, or are those buildings just Hollywood scenery props (I could be wrong)…
7) How come Ahmad Chalabi can walk around with charges on his head but not al-Sadr? Also, what’s everybody making a big deal on Chalabi; he’s only one of the biggest embezzlors in history and a fugitive from international (sort of) justice.
8) Wasn’t Allawi…er…a former Baathist? Is it true he got chased out of Iraq when he fell out with Saddam and the Man sent his henchmen to his house with axes? Or is that just folklore?
9) What is the true deal on work in Iraq (no, I don’t mean Halliburton, and no I’m not looking for a job yet), I mean ordinary Iraqis looking for a job to put food on the table? I’m asking you, because before the CPA would say the employment rate was increasing by some crazy number like 700%. Hmmmmm.
Anyway, I ‘ppreciate your time and if you can’t answer all these questions, well, nobody said you had to be perfect. Oh, yeah, I just want to say that a Republican senator from Utah, in a speech supporting the Iraq incursion and draining the swamp and all that, said that nothing mattered but VICTORY, as he put it ‘Victory Only Victory’. Victory is such a nebulous concept to me, so I say that peace is a more concrete, realistic goal than victory could ever be. I’ll stop rambling.
Peace only Peace
The situation in Iraq reminds me of the 1950’s here in the U.S., when the fear spread was towards the “Russian Peasants”, and I honestly believe that if the U.S. of today could come face-to-face with it’s anonymous self of the 1700’s, “We” would find justification for “liberating” those people for ‘abuses’ of women and children.
Unlike other forms of Government, each of Us has the ability to be either benevolent or tyrannical towards our fellow citizens, and many (if not most) concern themseves only with themselves and act, for all intents and purposes, as if they are Little Saddams.
It just seems to me that it is We—the People of the U.S.—who need to learn to be civilized.
Some say intellect rather than war should have been used to deal with Iraq, but it isn’t Iraq, but US who needs to get the message.
In Our greed, We have (for at least the last three years) been virtually accepting of a Genocide of Our own citizens because they “think wrong”, and I wonder if many have even noticed.
Chris
Wearing the uniforms of the Iraqi police or Iraqi national guard does not mean these people are supporting the government. Many took these jobs for the monthly pay but their allegiance is to the insurgents or to alSadr. It is so unfortunate the US troops are not patrolling the streets, because having them unseen only encourages the bad elements. It will take a major effort to purge the police and NG from these elements.