Iraq Casualties, Iraq Costs, Iraq Numbers

Below Is a detailed list of Iraq "by the numbers" released by Senator Harry Reid's office:


The Cost to Our Forces in Iraq

3,990: American troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the war. [icasualties.org, 3/17/08]

29,395: Number of U.S. service members that have been wounded in hostile action since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq. [AP, 3/11/08]

60,000: Number of troops that have been subjected to controversial stop-loss measures--meaning those who have completed service commitments but are forbidden to leave the military until their units return from war. [US News and World Report, 2/25/08]

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5: Number of times the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment has been sent to Iraq. They are the first Marine Corps unit to be sent to Iraq for a fifth time. [San Francisco Chronicle, 2/27/08]

2,100: Number of troops who tried to commit suicide or injure themselves increased from 350 in 2002 to 2,100 last year. [US News and World Report, 2/25/08]

11.9: Percent of noncommissioned Army officers who reported mental health problems during their first Iraq tour [Los Angeles Times, 3/7/08]

27.2: Percent of noncommissioned Army officers who reported mental health problems during their third or fourth Iraq tour [Los Angeles Times, 3/7/08]

The Cost to Our Military Readiness

88: Percent of current and former U.S. military officers surveyed in a recent independent study who believe that the demands of the war in Iraq have "stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin" [Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, 2/19/08]

94: Percent of Army recruits who had high school diplomas in Fiscal Year 2003 [Larry Korb, The Guardian, 10/12/07]

79: Percent of Army recruits who had high school diplomas in Fiscal Year 2007 [Larry Korb, The Guardian, 10/12/07]

4,644: Number of new Army recruits who were granted moral waivers in Fiscal Year 2003. [Houston Chronicle, 10/14/07]

12,057: Number of new Army recruits who were granted moral waivers in Fiscal Year 2007. [Houston Chronicle, 10/14/07]

67: Percent of captains the Army managed to retain this year, short of its goal of 80 percent, and in spite of cash bonus incentives of up to $35,000 [Armed Services Committee Hearing, 2/26/08]

The Cost to Our National Security

1,188: Number of global terrorist incidents from January - September 11th, 2001. [American Security Project, "Are We Winning?," September 2007]

5,188: Number of global terrorist incidents in from January- September 11th, 2006. [American Security Project, "Are We Winning?," September 2007]

30: Percent increase in violence in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2007. [Reuters, 10/15/07]

21: Number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan in 2001. [Center for American Progress, "The Forgotten Front," 11/07]

139: Number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan in 2006, with an additional increase of 69 percent as of November 2007. [Center for American Progress, "The Forgotten Front," 11/07]

30: Percent of Afghanistan controlled by the Afghan Government according to DNI Mike McConnell. [Associated Press, 2/27/08]

2,380: Days since September 11th, 2001 that Osama Bin Laden has been at-large.

The Cost of Funding the War in Iraq

$50-60 Billion: Bush Administration's pre-war estimates of the cost of the war. [New York Times, 12/31/02]

$12 Billion: Direct cost per month of the Iraq War. [Washington Post, Bilmes and Stiglitz Op-Ed, 3/9/08]

$526 Billion: Amount of money already appropriated by Congress for the War in Iraq. [CRS, 2/22/08]

$3 Trillion: Total estimated cost of the Iraq War. [Washington Post, Bilmes and Stiglitz Op-Ed, 3/9/08]

$5 Trillion - $7 Trillion: Total cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan accounting for continued military operations, growing debt and interest payments and continuing health care and counseling costs for veterans. [McClatchy, 2/27/08]

160: Percent that the cost of the Iraq War has increased from 2004 to 2008. [CRS Report, 2/22/08]

The Cost to Iraqis and Journalists

8,000: Number of Iraqi military and police killed since June 2003. [Brookings Institute, Iraq Index, March 13, 2008]

82,000-89,000: Estimate of Iraqi civilians casualties from violence since the beginning of the Iraq War. [Iraq Body Count]

4.5 Million: Number of Iraqi refugees both inside and outside the country. [Washington Post, 3/17/08]

61: Percent of Iraqis that believe the U.S. military presence makes the security situation in Iraq worse. [Agence France-Presse, 3/17/08]

127: Number of journalists killed in Iraq since March 2003. [Committee to Protect Journalists]

Economic Costs of War in Iraq

$33.51: Cost of a barrel of oil in March 2003. [Energy Information Administration]

$105.68: Cost of a barrel of oil on March 17, 2008. [NYMEX]

U.S. Troops and Contractors in Iraq

132,000: Number of U.S. troops in Iraq in January 2007, before President Bush's escalation. [Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 3/13/08]

155,000: Number of U.S. troops currently in Iraq. [Brookings Institution, Iraq Index, 3/13/08]

140,000: Number of U.S. troops projected to be in Iraq in July 2008. [Associated Press, 2/26/08]

35,000: Number of private security contractors operating in Iraq. [Human Rights First, Private Security Contractors at War]

180,000: Number of private contractors operating in Iraq. [Human Rights First, Private Security Contractors at War]

Progress Towards Political Reconciliation Made By Iraqis

3: Number out of 18 Bush Administration Benchmarks Met by Iraqi Government As of January 24, 2008. [Center for American Progress, 1/24/08]

18: Number of provinces President Bush said would be secured by Iraqis as of November 2007. [President Bush Speech, 1/10/07]

8: Number of provinces actually secured by Iraqis as of January 2008. [NPR, 1/7/08]

Bush-Republican Intransigence on Staying the Course in Iraq

8: Number of times a majority of the Senate has voted to change course in Iraq.

7: Number of times Bush Republicans in Congress have blocked changing course in Iraq.

1: Number of vetoes issued by the White House over changing course in Iraq.

Comments

[reecesullivan]

Pertaining to costs, where does one find estimates of Iraqi (civilian & non) deaths? I've seen estimates that range from 89,000 to 750,000 . . . thanks.

[For God sake]

For God Sake!

dear Mr. Bush,
stop and think:
isn´t Harry Reid´s Iraq list of your achievements (March 17,2008) enough?
How far are you going to push our soldiers and resources to go on:
killing and killing?
getting killed and killed?
destroying and destroying goods?
Don´t you see where is our dollar, how much lower do you want it to go?

Who is driving you?

You cannot be so mean all by yourself, if you are the President of the USA!!!

[Birdman]

I find it intersting that you choose the number of civilians death from IBC. I wonder have you been to IBC's web site to see how they come up with this number? This number is based on reported dead, the ones where they have been reported in the media or fomr other official sources such as hospitals and morgues. So what that leaves out is when a building is blown to pieces by a 2000 pound bomb how many bodies can someone count from that? I can tell you not many since most bosies would be obliterated. We may never know the actual count, but I can tell you that the IBC count is lower then it should be, based on the fact they only record deaths that can be confirmed, through offical means, and doesn't count obliterated bodies nor the bodies burried without official intervention. Both of these overlooked catagories would lead to a very low body count indeed. Based on this may explain why there is such a diaparity between IBC's number and say the UN or the other studies done? This site has by far the lowest number, and it looks like it directly related to thier methodology.

[CatfishAndGrits]

C'mon.........The number of Iraqis is in the hundreds of thousand, at least ~ 600,000. What have you reporters been doing for the last 5 yrs. Let's take the very numbers list and apply some common sense.

If you take the # of killed and wounded soldiers (29395, and 3990 respectively, and even those number are suspect) and totaled them, you get 33385. If you take this number and divide by the number of iraqi civilian casualties (82000), you get roughly 40%. Translated that means for every 2 soldier casualties, you have 5 iraqi civilian casualties. That's ridiculous. Does anybody actual believe that only 82000 iraqis have lost their live so far, and that only 33385 of our soldier. If you do, I have a bridge I want sell ya....

[boomer1949]

3: The number in the Executive Branch who lied, manipulated, and deceived this country into an illegal war, i.e. Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and Mr. Rumsfeld.

[GingerB]

You forgot Condi Rice; and Wolfowitz, Feith, Perle, Wurmser, Bolton, etc...

[HippieChick]

All of the neocons who scammed this nation into this illegal war should be forced to wear a "scarlet letter" shirt the rest of their days professing to the world these statistics that would constantly remind them of the failed and devastating actions and effects of their imperial war.

[GingerB]

Better yet, they should be locked away behind prison bars for the rest of their lives.

[HippieChick]

"2,100: Number of troops who tried to commit suicide or injure themselves increased from 350 in 2002 to 2,100 last year"

All of the figures stated in this post are unfathomable to the human mind. The consequences of Bush's imperial war are beyond comprehension to people, most who are intensely engaged in their own personal war of surviving Bush's economic devastation. However, grief the families of the 3,990 who have lost their lives must forever endure, the countless family members whose lives have been forever affected by the 29,395 troops who have been wounded, and the 2,100 troops who believe that suicide is the only way they can end their pain should make everyone who professes to "support our troops" profoundly ashamed. Combined with the $12 billion a month of our nation's resources wasted on this war for profit, and the devastation of the entire nation of Iraq and its people, how can anyone with a soul believe this neocon war was/is "worth it?"

[guntotinganglion]

The only numbers that really count, aren't on Reid's list. That would be, the million plus innocent Iraqi's who are now dead. The percentage of all deaths in this "war", by the stats of over a million dead, is 99% innocent Iraqi deaths. Less than 1% are US soldiers. US deaths and casualties are insignificant compared to the price this country has paid, and continues to pay every day that the maniac-in-chief remains in office.

Our forces are willing participants. The Iraqi's are not. They were attacked for no reason, with the ostensible reason being WMD. That of course, was a filthy lie, and the stories have changed ever since, like a fucking slot machine. No point in even listing them, they're all lies.

This country is the guilty party in ALL of this. What's left of our treasury should be spent on reparations to the country that we have utterly destroyed, and what's left of it's people. 1.2 million dead at last statistical analysis. God only knows how many million have been wounded? This country has been raping Iraq now for a full five years, and the rape is showing no signs of ending.

America is the land of shameless indifference to the suffering of innocent people that were targeted by a mindless, racist tyrant, who's cruelty knows no limits. America is stained with this dishonor, whether it knows it or not, and there will inevitably be blowback from the offended parties, and as is always the case, more innocents will die. Innocents always pay the price for the hubris of despots. It's all on the head of the man who chose this "war", America's Pol Pot, George W. Bush.

[darker]

CHENEY RUNS THE SHOW.
Cheney's a good example of why voters should WATCH OUT WHO THEY VOTE FOR.

=== On Cheney's day #1 as V-P he TOLD the deer-in-the-headlights GWBush that "WE ARE ENTITLED" to do virtually anything we want. And he did it. Cheney gets away with it.
=== That Corporate greed is #1 in importance, regardless of cost. Deregulation is essential, regardless of cost.
=== Invasions are essential, regardless of cost in lives & tax money.
=== Cheney runs the Bush-Cheney "show". Cheney believes middle-income Americans should pay the bills for CORPORATE WELFARE QUEENS out to profiteer on everything-in-sight as fast as possible.

==== THAT is the kind of Wyoming "corporate cowboy arrogance" NOT to vote for ever again.

[joebaggadonuts]

Thanks for posting this. Very important to put all the numbers down for the qualitatively challenged bean counters. Maybe now they will start to get it. Link to this article in right wing blogs, please. Send this in mail you address to your congress persons. Enough already!

[SpaceCadet]

[[82,000-89,000: Estimate of Iraqi civilians casualties from violence since the beginning of the Iraq War. [Iraq Body Count]]]

That number is off by an order of magnitude. The number of Iraqis killed in this war is somewhere between 500,000 to a million. There have been THREE independent surveys conducted so far that concluded the number of Iraqis killed was in that range. Of course, G. W. Bush says that higher number is not credible, and as we all know, he's a genius at statistics like he is at everything else.

[razororlando]

How many Iraqis and Iranians did Saddam massacre before Bill Clinton bombed their weapons facilities that you claim they didn't have? How many of those in your count are Iraqi and how many are foreign fighters? And as far as his intelligence goes...Jimmy Carter was a genius right? 21% interest rates, gas lines, Iran Hostages, OK buddy.

[ideasmatter]

Razororlando, what's your point buddy? Did we find WMDs, or not? Didn't we help Saddam in his sordid slaughter of nearly a million innocent Iranians, and
about half as much of his own people? Weren't some of the same people (Rumsfeld, Cheney) the go-betweens? That's when the US should have stopped Saddam. Jimmy Carter indeed is a very intelligent and caring man: he was less concerned with gas lines than killing civilians. I do think that W is smarter than he is given credit for; his problem is foremost that he is evil, indifferent to the suffering he causes.

[pheepher]

And we just can't understand why our economy is going into the toilet. It's time to stop borrowing money to pay for private contractors, and the military industrial complex, let Iraq figure out who will lead their country and bring our children home.

[tea in the harbor]

That's unfair! You only show the bad statistics! What about the good we've done? Where's the number of dollars lapped from the blood pool by US Corporations? How about the boom in the prosthesis industry? Coffin manufacturer's, PTSD treatment , domestic spies, even body armor manufacturing in the last year or two! It's all just so, so..romantic, yeh, that's it, Romantic! George and Dick having a candle lit dinner as they contemplate the invasion of Iran. There are some things eternal damnation just can't make right!

[LouPop]

Where did the number of civilians killed come from? I've seen estimates much, much higher than that. The left should be focusing what policies Bremer and the CPA implemented (including orders that the Bush administration claims are binding on all future governments. How moral is that, pass economic laws the population is against and doesn't want then claim Iraqis can't do anything about it), what horrific effect they've had. They should also realize that since the invasion BOTH parties have been behind the privatization of Iraq's oil, even though over 80% of the country is against it. Just goes to show, like NAFTA, that being bi-partisan doesn't mean it is "centrist" in any way, it's in practice a one party state, and one that is not participatory in any way for the general public.

[OliverTwist]

Senator Harry Reid.'s reliance on Iraq Body Count (IBC) for his measure of Iraqi casualties shows that he still is committed to the pro-war spin.

No casualty shows up on IBC that has not at some point been vetted by the coalition authorities. Considering the number of filters that must be passed and the ways in which they exclude casualties before any casualty is credited by IBC it is actually a wonder that IBC shows any Iraqi casualties at all.

I would not be suprised if the founders of IBC are actually working for the UK government to minimize the maximum Iraqi casualty report. Certainly the university where they work and hold research contracts has many UK government contracts.

The Lancet study and the follow up provides a more scientific measure - which is more on the order of a six hundred thousand to a million or more excess deaths.