Iraq: Measurable Progress

Here’s the latest monthly, highly abbreviated version of the Iraq Index, published and updated twice a week by Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution:

Americans Killed in Action, Iraq (monthly average)

2003: 32
2004: 59
2005: 56
2006: 48
June: 44

Americans Killed in Action, Vietnam (weekly average)

1965:* 30
1966: 97
1967: 177
1968: 263
____
* = First U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam, 5.3.65
Vietnam table compiled by Galen Fox using Defense Department sources.

Note please—the Vietnam KIAs are weekly, not monthly, averages.

Crude Oil Production (m. bbls./day)

Prewar: 2.50
Goal: 2.50
actual: 2.30 (6/06)

Electricity (megawatts)

Prewar: 3,958
Goal: 6,000
actual: 4,500 (6/06)

Oil production in June was the highest it’s been since October 2004, and higher than for any month since Baghdad’s liberation except for September/October 2004. June electricity output reached its highest ever monthly average since liberation, and was higher than the pre-war Iraq monthly average. U.S. killed in action in June fell below the monthly average for 2006, after shooting up in April-May.

Tom Friedman, close friend and advocate of Michael Mandelbaum, is the spiritual father of this blog. Friedman is upset enough about the power high oil prices give to autocratic governments in the Middle East and elsewhere that he is calling for creation of a “Geo-Green” anti-petroleum party in the U.S. that would compete under the banner, “Green is the New Red, White and Blue.” (New York Times, 6.16.06)

Maybe not. But Friedman is not only right about our oil addiction, he is forthright about attacking Democrats for neglecting “Islamic totalitarianism.” He quotes Will Marshall, head of the Democratic Progressive Policy Institute, who says Democrats need to convey to voters “that they viscerally understand that liberty is in danger” when groups of terrorists think they can kill anyone at any time. Democrats, according to Marshall (and Friedman), wrongly focus “only on what we’ve done wrong.” (New York Times, 6.12.06)