But Who's Counting?

2006 starts off where 2005 left off -- more lies about Iraq from our government, dutifully reported in the New York Times. On New Year's Day, the NYT reports 844 U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq in 2005, "nearly matching" the 848 in 2004. I'm sure that tomorrow's NYT will report that the White House views this statistic as dramatic proof that the war is going better.

But on page 7, the number of wounded troops in 2005 is reported as up "significantly" from the previous year -- to 9,157 from the 2004 number of 7,956. The article then reports that "the total wounded since the war began [March 2003] is 15,955." The numbers from 2004 and 2005 alone add up to more than that -- 17,113. I checked the math. Perhaps there were negative numbers of wounded in 2003 which counts for the 15,955 total. Or maybe the NYT staff was, like, totally hung over or something.

Ah America. My heart breaks at the horrific casualties in Iraq. Lives ruined forever. The NYT article wastes no time to compare these numbers favorably to Vietnam, and even more so to World War I figures of war casualties. So, I guess it's not so bad after all. Maybe that will be the president's message to the wounded soldiers (however many there are) he'll visit in San Antonio today.

Even if it doesn't hold for economics, the administration's trickle-down theory of indifference toward war dead and wounded continues to make progress. So let's jump and dance to welcome in the New Year -- at least those of us who still have two lower limbs.