IRAQ - THE SURGE AND THE REALITY

While the Pentagon and White House, as well as many in Congress declare the surge in Iraq a success, little is said about the fact that as many as 24,000 Iraqi civilians died in 2007, representing the second highest casualty figure since the invasion in 2003.
Most of the dead were from areas outside of the capital Baghdad where the surge has been concentrated thereby indicating a drastic increase in violence in other parts of the country. While there is no doubt the surge has reduced high levels of sectarian deaths in the capital, the facts show a drastic increase in killings elsewhere.
The problem with representing the surge as a major success is that the overall picture of life in the country is obscured and the level of human tragedy minimized. If one compares last year’s death toll with the death toll on 9/11, the Iraqi civilian casualty toll in 2007 was 800% higher. That does even account for the numbers of civilians injured and maimed for life, or for the dead and wounded within the ranks of US military and its coalition partners. In 2007, there were close to 900 US military deaths and 5,648 wounded. Forty-seven British soldiers were also killed. Those figures hid yet another statistic, namely the numbers of soldiers evacuated from Iraq for treatment related to behavioral and psychiatric issues. Some reports have suggested that close to 1,000 soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been treated at the Army medical facilities at Landsthul in Germany. Most were from Iraq and fell into the category of victims of “mental trauma.”
The undeniable success of the troop surge in lowering US casualties and reducing the chaos in Baghdad obscured another troubling aspect of the Iraq campaign in 2007, namely that the US military and “contractor” personnel killed over 600 civilians between June and November. Among the dead were women and children, with 23 children killed by US fire in October alone. In a US raid near Lake Thar Thar, north of Tikrit, the birthplace of the late Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, fifteen women and children died in a US air raid. One of the women was pregnant. When it comes to compensating the relatives of victims of what is euphemistically defined as “collateral damage in the war on terror,” the Pentagon and wealthy companies running private armies of “contractors” have been, at the very least penny pinching.
Approximately $8,000 was paid by the Pentagon to two children who lost their mother when the taxi in which she was traveling came under fire. The vehicle was said to have run a checkpoint. The children were alongside their mother when she died and were also injured. A measly “condolence” payment of $500 was paid to the family of a deaf man shot outside a museum in Samarra and a larger “condolence” payment of $2,500 was granted to the parents of a 4-year-old girl who died when a bullet fired from a Humvee struck her. A report of the incident claimed the bullet was fired to clear traffic at an intersection but struck a post, ricocheted and hit the girl. In another incident that the US military agreed was a case of “negligent fire,” an Iraqi ambulance driver was shot dead on his way to a bomb scene by a coalition soldier. The dead man’s family was compensated with a payment of $2,500.
The most reliable figures for the death toll in Iraq are kept by Iraq Body County(IBC), a non-profit agency that compiles its data from media reports that are authenticated, as well as hospital and morgue records, and material supplied by NGO’s and official Iraqi organizations. IBC never offers estimates of the numbers killed at any given time and reports only violent civilian deaths. The agency was established by volunteers from Britain and the US in 2003 to ensure that the civilian death toll was reflected in coverage of the war, following statements by then US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld that the US occupation forces did not keep track of civilian casualties. IBC has not shirked from questioning reports by other sources, like the esteemed medical journal, Lancet, when it declared an estimate of 600,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. That raised skepticism within the IBC. While it accepted that more deaths occurred than were ever reported, it argued that the Lancet method of reaching such a high number did not stand up to serious scrutiny. Nevertheless, IBC reckons that at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since 2003. It pays little heed to the much heralded success of the surge by politicians like presidential candidate, Sen. John Mc Cain. Instead, it makes the following point:
“For some 24,000 Iraqi civilians and their families, 2007 was a year of devastating and irreparable tragedy. The casualty figures show beyond any reasonable doubt that civil security in Iraq remains in a perilous state.”
From the perspective of Gen. David Petraeus, the US commander in charge of the surge, the rosy picture of Iraq presented by politicians on the presidential stump, does not exactly square with his reading of the situation. While he stresses the need to build on what was accomplished in 2007, he warns that success cannot be compared to “flipping a light switch.” His use of that phrase suggests it would be unwise to think the battle is won and that the mission has been accomplished.