Baghdad Central Morgue Report For June

Another month, another record.

For the third consecutive month, the Baghdad Central Morgue set a new one-month record in June when it processed 1,595 bodies, about 70 percent of them victims of warring sectarian factions.

The new record reflects a surge in violence following the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's leader of Iraq, in a U.S. airstrike. The factions -- primarily Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias -- continue to control much of the city despite a highly publicized security crackdown in the city by U.S. and Iraqi forces during the month.

Sunnis accounted for 30 percent of the bodies received by the morgue in June, a disproportionately high number compared with their 20 percent share of the population.

The previous record of 1,365 bodies was set in May, which topped the April record of 1,091 bodies. The June number was double that in June 2005, reaffirming that the U.S.-Iraqi strategy for tamping down violence is having no effect.

Omar confirms this in a post entitled Aadhamiya . . . again at his blog from Baghdad, Iraq the Model.

QUOTE DU JOUR

Qais Mohammed, a shopkeeper in Ramadi, the center of the Sunni insurgeny:

We do not want gold, or dresses or the food of kings. We want to live without fear for our lives and our kids. These days neither your tribe nor the police can protect you. It is the jungle law.

WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

Meanwhile, President Bush reiterated in an Independence Day speech at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, to soldiers and their families that setting an artificial timetable for troop withdrawal s from Iraq would be "a terrible mistake" and took the rare step of mentioning the precise number of war dead.

Said the president:

I'm going to make you this promise. I'm not going to allow the sacrifice of 2,527 troops who have died in Iraq to be in vain by pulling out before the job is done.

Bush's stand contrasts with a declaration by Gen. George Casey, the ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, that significant troop withdrawals could commence in 2007 and be completed by the end of 2008.

<>Meanwhile, the inestimable TrudyRubin, a longtime foreign affairs expert at the Philadelphia Inquirer, is back from her umpteenth visit to Iraq and writes that:

<>Iraqi officials from nearly all factions say they want U.S. troops drawn down within 18 months. Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie wrote in the Washington Post recently that he expected most of the U.S. troops "to return home by the end of 2007." <>

However, neither Rubaie nor more senior Iraqi leaders want an explicit timeline. Instead, they favor a "road map" for troop reductions, that depends on achieving a set of goals for improving Iraqi security. They want dates, but dates that depend on meeting those targets.

<>

SACRIFICE? WHAT SACRIFICE?

As Americans return to work after the Independence Day holiday, few of us will give Iraq a second thought. This steams F. John Duresky, an Air Force captain station in the war zone, who writes in a Washington Post op-ed piece that:

A few days ago, as I do every day in Iraq, I listened to the commander's battle update. The briefer calmly and professionally described the day's events. Somewhere in Iraq, on some forgotten, dusty road, an insurgent fighting an occupying army detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) under a Humvee, killing an American soldier. The briefer fielded a question from the general and moved to the next item in the update.

The day before that, in America, a 15-year-old's incredibly rich parents planned the biggest sweet 16 party ever. They will spend more than $200,000 on an opulent event marking a single year in an otherwise unremarkable life. The soon-to-be-16 girl doesn't know where Iraq is and doesn't care. That same day an American soldier died in Iraq.

Two days earlier, a 35-year-old man went shopping for home entertainment equipment. He had the toughest time selecting the correct plasma screen; he could afford the biggest and best of everything. In the end, he had it installed by a specialty store. He spent about $50,000 on the whole system. He has never met anybody serving in the military nor served himself, but thinks we should "turn the whole place into a parking lot." That day, another American soldier died in Iraq.

. . . Yesterday millions of Americans celebrated Independence Day. They attended parties and barbecues. Families came together from all across the country to celebrate the big day. Millions of dollars were spent on fireworks. At public events, there were speeches honoring the people who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. These words mostly fell on bored ears. While the country celebrated its own greatness, other Americans were still fighting in Iraq.

Today Americans go back to their normal business. The politicians in Washington have made sure the sacrifices of the war are borne by the very smallest percentage of Americans. They won't even change the tax rates to prevent deficits from running out of control. Future generations will pay the cost of this war.

Many Americans feel strongly about the war one way or another, but they aren't signing up their children for service or taking the protest to the streets. What can they do? It is they whom we in the military trust to influence our leaders in Washington.

Today, as on every other day in Iraq, American servicemen are in very real danger. Our country is at war. Mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and children are worrying about their loved ones in a faraway land. They all hope he or she isn't the one whose luck runs out today.