Milestone brings calls for perspective, exit strategy
WASHINGTON -- The US military death toll in Iraq reached 2,000 yesterday after the Pentagon reported that two Marines were killed in a roadside bombing and a soldier wounded in an attack last week had succumbed, marking a somber milestone for American troops battling a stubborn insurgency now well into its third year.
In the latest tally of casualties, the military announced that Army Staff Sergeant George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died in San Antonio on Saturday after he was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad over a week ago. The two Marines were not immediately identified.
A total of 15,220 US troops have been wounded in the guerrilla conflict where sniper attacks, ambushes, and suicide bombings have combined with a harsh climate and dangerous living conditions to exact a mounting toll.
The overall military losses, including 159 troops from other allied nations, remain far below those of some previous conflicts. In the Vietnam War, more than 6,000 Americans died in 1966 -- the first full year that combat troops were introduced -- and a total of nearly 60,000 Americans died by the war's end. In World War II, 10,000 GIs were killed in the Battle of the Bulge alone.
In Iraq, at least 30,000 civilians and more than 2,700 government forces have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, according to both official estimates and news reports. The US toll was a powerful reminder that despite Iraq's political progress -- including the passage of a new constitution -- maintaining security across the country remains among the most elusive goals for the 159,000 American troops and their allies, according to US military officials and outside specialists.
''It is another indication that the predictions of high casualty levels that were mocked before the invasion have come to pass," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ''The US numbers fluctuate, but they are still quite high. Iraqi security force casualties are higher than any time. The silver lining means the Iraqis are fighting [the insurgency] more, but the security trends don't show much reason for positive sentiment."
In Washington, the US Senate held a moment of silence in honor of the troops in Iraq. In the House of Representatives, the names of some of the dead were read into the Congressional Record.
President Bush, speaking at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington hours before the 2,000th death was announced, said the military's sacrifice must be properly remembered.
''Each loss of life is heartbreaking, and the best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission," Bush told military spouses.
US military officials, meanwhile, tried to play down the significance of the milestone.
''The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives," Army Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, a spokesman for the coalition forces, told reporters yesterday in an e-mail from Baghdad.
At the Pentagon, senior officials said that 25 percent of the US deaths were not caused by insurgents but by accidents, disease, and suicide. The conflict has wrought a higher percentage of battlefield injuries than previous wars -- 10 wounded per every death from hostile action vs. five injured per every combat loss in Vietnam -- but officials said advances in battlefield medicine have saved many injured soldiers.
About half of the more than 15,000 wounded, which include a record 320 amputees, have been returned to duty, they said.
Still, on the home front, where public opinion polls suggest that at least half of Americans believe invading Iraq was a mistake, the milestone fueled calls for an exit strategy. Antiwar activists planned nationwide vigils for today, including one in front of the White House led by Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq.
Democratic lawmakers also weighed in.
''Our soldiers need more than happy talk about progress from the president," Senator Edward M. Kennedy, of Massachusetts, said in remarks on the Senate floor. ''They need more than a public relations campaign. They need an effective plan to end the violence and stabilize Iraq, so they can come home with dignity and honor."
New figures released by the military showed that insurgent attacks have climbed steadily, albeit with peaks and troughs, since early 2004, when US authorities began steering Iraq toward formal sovereignty and elections. The figures suggest that the insurgency is growing deadlier as it continues.
For example, the US death toll reached 1,000 on Sept. 8, 2004, almost 18 months after the US-led invasion. It took just over 13 months for the next 1,000 to die. Moreover, while the US military has been reluctant to release information on overall trends of attacks on US troops and Iraqis, a spokesman released figures earlier this month showing the attacks per week from Feb. 7, 2004, to Oct. 7, 2005. In February 2004, attacks hovered at about 200 per week, with about 50 causing at least one injury or death. By August and September of this year, the number of attacks had nearly tripled, wavering between 500 and 600 per week, with 100 to 150 causing death or injury.
Meanwhile, a new report published yesterday by the London-based Institute for International and Strategic Studies predicted that most of the US troops now in Iraq will probably have to remain in the country after Bush leaves office in early 2009 to ensure the Iraqi government and security forces will eventually be able to stand on their own.
Marine Colonel Stephen W. Davis, who commands the 5,000-strong Regimental Combat Team Two in western Anbar province, said the attention to the number 2,000 was unwarranted.
''People die in wars. That is a known fact," he said yesterday in a telephone interview from Al Asad air base in the western desert. ''What you have now is an all-volunteer force, and when you look at a nation that is in a fight for a good two years at this point, those numbers, while extremely regrettable, are fairly low, considering the scope of the effort and the intensity that this insurgent enemy is bringing against us."
Bender reported from Washington, D.C.; Barnard reported from Baghdad. 