Month 52 of the War by the Numbers

ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS OUTSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE

Even if the war had gone exactly according to plan, the neocons' grand vision of regional transformation had about as much chance of success as throwing a hand grenade into a printing press and it spitting out a copy of "Hamlet."

-- GARY KAMIYA

Geez! Is it August already? Time flies when your having war.

The good news out of Mesopotamia is that "only" 78 U.S. soldiers were in July, down from 101 in June. The bad news is that those 78 are nearly double the number killed in June 2006. And so the surge goes.

And goes and goes, as is evident from 12-month totals crunched by Charles Amico at We the People:

1,078 -- August 2006-July 2007
779 -- August 2005-July 2006
883 -- August 2004-July 2005
662 -- August 2003-July 2004

Charles hits the ball out of the park when says:

"Let there be no doubt as to the trend in U.S Fatalities. Some things may be getting better in Iraq. But the question remains, for whom are things getting better? It certainly isn't for American soldiers and it isn't for most Iraqis. It is only good for those who make money by continuing the war."

* * * * *

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

JULY 2007 ROUNDUP

1,688 -- (1,342) Iraqis killed (*)
78 (101) -- U.S. troops killed

TWO-MONTH (June-July) ROUNDUP

3,033 -- (April-May: 3,317) Iraqis killed (*)
179 (April May: 239) -- U.S. troops killed

U.S. WAR-TO-DATE ROUNDUP
3,657 (3,578) -- Total killed

COST
$447,991,000,000 ($439,320,000,000)

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

Photograph by Ron Edmonds/The Associated Press