2007 deadliest year in Iraq and Afghanistan

With 2 months still to go, 2007 has already become the deadliest year for U.S. forces in both the Iraq War and the invasion of Afghanistan.

If you wade through the right-wing blogs lately, you'll come across one talking point repeatedly: They claim military deaths in Iraq have been down this year, so the war must be going just dandy. I don't know where they get this from, but I think they pulled it out of their ass. Last week, when the military announced the deaths of 6 more American military personnel in 3 separate incidents, 2007 became the deadliest year for U.S. forces so far in the Iraq War, with this year's total up to 852.

The only reasons there seem to be fewer deaths now are that the fatalities have become so common that they're not reported as much and because the early part of the war saw more conventional battles. There's actually more American troops in Iraq now than at any other point in the war.

Military spokesman Maj. Winfield Danielson says Bush's troop surge has contributed to the increase in deaths this year. The number of deaths dropped in October, but only after the surge had already increased deaths.

How about Afghanistan? The 6-year-long invasion of Afghanistan is plagued by as much poor planning as the Iraq War is. Last week's ambush that killed 6 U.S. troops (plus 3 Afghan soldiers) there makes 2007 the deadliest year yet in that operation, bringing this year's total to 101.

Although this invasion was launched to oust the Taliban and Al-Qaida after 9/11, this goal hasn't been successful. (Considering the Republicans' support of the Taliban in the '90s, it's obligatory to be wary of anything the Bush White House might do.) Just last week, it was reported that the Taliban captured yet another region in western Afghanistan - contradicting official statements that the Taliban is weakened. Reuters reported that the Taliban "seized Khak-e Sefid without a fight."

So now the Taliban is back in power, even after the loss of 101 American lives. Not good.

Recently, Joe Lieberman - in his usual fawning over the Bush regime - said, "I'm proud to say that the tide has turned in Iraq and we're winning that war." Not only is this not true in Iraq, but it's also not true in Afghanistan.

(Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21650614;
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3847781;
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071105/wl_nm/afghan_violence_dc)