The Opinionated Bastard

(all charts popup if you click them for easy viewing)

First up, the Killed in Action by cause chart:

Now we're half way through the month, so realize that you should probably double all the numbers unless the election really did tone things down.

Even doubling the numbers though, it looks like car crashes and IEDs will still be the main causes of death in Iraq. Hostile Fire is way down this month, and that's the big variable in this chart. So it looks like operations in November to clear up the corridor have really paid off, and paid off in time for the election.

US Troops wounded in action is well below expectations:

Even if I double the number so far, 360 would be much lower. Of course, I've said before that the wounding number more or less indicates operational tempo of our forces, so they've probably been less in your face because of the election. Maybe not though, Bill Roggio's dispatch's seem to be implying the opposite.

Deaths of Iraqi Police continues to be down:

but if I double it, its about what it was last month, so it may be settling into a steady state.

The number of Iraqi civilians killed this month is so low I almost don't believe it: 19. But there have been only 8 multiple fatality bombings so far, a huge reduction:

It's currently less then 25% of last month, so even doubled it's less then half of the previous month. With so few bombings, deaths and woundings are down as well:

This is a chart unique to me, it shows fatality rates for the 5 types of people in Iraq vs. people in some US occupations:

So its only slightly worse being a farmer in the US then being a civilian KBR employee in Iraq. It's 10 times worse being a soldier than being a farmer, but it's 20 times worse if you're in combat.

What does that mean? I dunno, except I suppose I should extrapolate a “baseline” for my “car crashes” line above. Probably about 5 of those each month would have happened anyways since there would have been about 45-60 deaths annually normally.

However, bottom line, better or worse? Better!

Can't wait to see what effect the election will have.