Iraq: American KIA Surpass 9.11 Total

Here’s our 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: 58
2007: 84
July: 63

Americans Killed in Action, Vietnam (monthly average)
1965: 128*
1966: 420
1967: 767
1968: 1140
1969: 785
____
* = First U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam, 5.3.65
Vietnam table compiled by Galen Fox using Defense Department sources.

Crude Oil Production (m. bbls./day)

Prewar Peak: 2.50
Goal: 2.10 (Revised downward, 1/07)
actual: 2.06 (7/07)

Electricity (megawatts)

Prewar: 3,958
Goal: 6,000
actual: 4,250 (7/07)

Since our last monthly report, the American KIA total dropped from June's 99 down to 63. This represents a significant decline from the KIA total for April-June, which averaged 104 a month. [Please note: the number of KIA is almost always lower than the media-reported total of American deaths, which covers all causes, including non-hostile. Our Iraq and Vietnam figures are KIA only.] Still, the American KIA in July passed a milestone of sorts; at 3000, the KIA total now surpasses the total of 2,974 innocent people killed in one morning on September 11, 2001.

Oil output rose slightly from June to July, yet remains below the target revised downward in January. In the case of electricity, output during the heat of summer rose to another 2007 high, but remained below July 2006's average output of 4,400 megawatts.

In his current report, O’Hanlon adds, “On balance, Iraq at the end of July is showing significant signs of battlefield momentum in favor of U.S./coalition military forces, but there is nonetheless little good to report on the political front and only modest progress on the economic side of things.”

O’Hanlon, together with his Brookings colleague Kenneth Pollack, has also written a New York Times op-ed that generated quite a stir, especially among war critics who expected a more sober evaluation of conditions in Iraq from the Brookings team. According to O’Hanlon and Pollack:

the administration’s critics seem unaware of the significant changes taking place [in Iraq]. Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.