Sunday, May 06, 2007
Report on American War Dead
Based on Department of Defense releases, for the period April 3, 2007 to May 3, 2007, 8 American soldiers died in Afghanistan, and 98 died in Iraq, which is another bloody month (although just up 2 from last month). These are really unprecedentedly low combat death figures for wars this size, but still a concern. Each, of course, remains a personal tragedy for family and friends. Here are the breakdowns.
In Afghanistan, one person died from a land mine; two from non-combat causes, three from IEDs, one from small arms and one from combat operations. Still awaiting the dreaded Spring Offensive by the Taliban although the death toll is up from last month by 5.
In Iraq, the IED, as usual, killed the most--58--with the generic term combat operations a distant second with 15. Small arms (including grenades and RPGs) killed 14. That last is double last month so there must be some real fighting going on with the surge. Two were killed in accidents; four from non-combat causes; and four from indirect fire (which almost certainly is mortar fire, another tell tale for real fighting although not perfectly reliable). Finally one died from an unknown cause---the DOD just didn't put out enough information for anyone to tell. I believe no women died, unless they had absolutely masculine names.
If we could solve the IED problem, then the combat deaths would be only about one per day. I have no scientific training, but because there are so many different types of explosives and sealing them up would prevent the type of 'sniffing' we used to do more of in airports, I thought that a sort of radar beam which detects the kind of molecular structures which can be explosives would be the goal to chase, if indeed that's even possible. Someone, maybe the pentagon, should put up a big cash prize for the scientist or team of scientists who come up with a method for detecting explosives at no less than 50 meters.
In Afghanistan, one person died from a land mine; two from non-combat causes, three from IEDs, one from small arms and one from combat operations. Still awaiting the dreaded Spring Offensive by the Taliban although the death toll is up from last month by 5.
In Iraq, the IED, as usual, killed the most--58--with the generic term combat operations a distant second with 15. Small arms (including grenades and RPGs) killed 14. That last is double last month so there must be some real fighting going on with the surge. Two were killed in accidents; four from non-combat causes; and four from indirect fire (which almost certainly is mortar fire, another tell tale for real fighting although not perfectly reliable). Finally one died from an unknown cause---the DOD just didn't put out enough information for anyone to tell. I believe no women died, unless they had absolutely masculine names.
If we could solve the IED problem, then the combat deaths would be only about one per day. I have no scientific training, but because there are so many different types of explosives and sealing them up would prevent the type of 'sniffing' we used to do more of in airports, I thought that a sort of radar beam which detects the kind of molecular structures which can be explosives would be the goal to chase, if indeed that's even possible. Someone, maybe the pentagon, should put up a big cash prize for the scientist or team of scientists who come up with a method for detecting explosives at no less than 50 meters.
Labels: Iraq; Afghanistan; American War Dead
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 10:18 PM 
Comments:
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Doug Sundseth says that mortar and long range artillary fire is indirect because you don't shoot directly at the target but lob it in in a big parabola. I don't find it to be much of a distinction, but I don't doubt Doug.
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