Month 54 Of the War By the Numbers

ANOTHER WOMAN SOLDIER IS LAID TO REST

When we look back on September 2007, it will be remembered as a month during which a modest downtrend in casualties to a 14-month low continued and George Bush lowered his thick head and plowed once again into the brick wall that is the Iraq war.

But that's not where we're going to focus this roundup. Instead, we will note that the U.S. is closing in on another bloody milestone: The deaths of 100 woman soldiers in Iraq.

The total currently stands at 84, including the deaths of these Army personnel in recent weeks:

Captain and medical doctor Roselle M. Hoffmaster, 32, of Cleveland. (Accident.)

Specialist Marisol Heredia, 19, of El Monte, California. (Non combat-related.)

Specialist Kamisha Block, 20, of Vidor, Texas. (Friendly fire.)

Staff Sergeant Alicia A. Burnett, 28, of Mashpee, Masachusetts. (Vehicle accident.)

Sergeant Princess "Noodle" Samuels, 22, of suburban Baltimore. (Killed with Walker in mortar attack.)

Specialist Zandra Walker, 28, of Greenville, South Carolina. (Killed with Samuels in mortar attack.)

Private First Class Lavena Johnson, 19 of Flourissant, Missouri. (Army claims self-inflicted wound; cause of death is disputed by family.)

Captain and nurse Maria Ortiz, 40, of Pennsauken, New Jersey (Mortar attack in Green Zone.)

At first glance, most of these deaths were non combat-related, but that is misleading.

War kills in myriad ways, and you can have a scalpel in your hand and not a grenade when your number comes up. As it is, two thirds of the U.S. women killed in Iraq this year died because of hostile causes.

* * * * *

Herewith our monthly numbers roundup, or what's left of it because U.S. and Iraq officials have been withholding a number of statistics. (Current 2007 totals are in orange; previous totals are in black.):

SEPTEMBER 2007 ROUNDUP

803 (1,548) Iraqis killed (*)
66 (81) -- U.S. troops killed

TWO-MONTH (August-September) ROUNDUP

2,477 (July-August: 3,238) Iraqis killed (*)
147 (July-August: 169) -- U.S. troops killed

U.S. WAR-TO-DATE ROUNDUP
3,807 (3,735) -- Total killed

COST
$455,893,000,000 ($447,471,000,000)

(*) Includes Iraqi Army personnel, security forces, national police and civilians. Sources: National Priorities Project, Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, Defense Manpower Data Center.