The U.S. military said Tuesday that a Marine was killed in fighting west of the capital, pushing the American death toll for July to at least 73, the lowest in eight months.
The No. 2 commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, expressed cautious optimism last week about the downturn. He said casualties had increased as U.S. forces expanded operations into militant strongholds as part of a five-month-old security crackdown aimed at clamping off violence in Baghdad, but were going down as Americans gained control of the areas.
In other words, the surge is working.
There's one bit of information, though, that I cannot find in the mainstream media or on the internet: the number of enemy killed during the same time period. Neil Boortz says that in yesterday's interview with the President, the number is extremely high but the administration has a policy of not reporting the numbers. That's too bad, because the American people should know that while the American casualties are very low, our soldiers are devastating the terrorist forces in Iraq. The media puts such a negative spin on just about everything that comes out of Iraq, that it's time we compare the two death tolls so we can get a good idea of exactly what is going on.
