US military deaths in Iraq reach 2,500

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. military deaths
in Iraq has reached 2,500, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more
than three years into a conflict that finds U.S. and allied
forces locked in a struggle with a resilient insurgency.

The milestone came two days after President George W. Bush,
hoping to bolster faltering U.S. public support for the war,
made a surprise trip to Iraq. In Congress, some Democrats
reiterated calls for a timetable to pull out the 127,000 U.S.
troops in Iraq.

“Any president who goes through a time of war feels very
deeply the responsibility for sending men and women into harm’s
way, he feels very deeply the pain that the families feel, and
this president is no different,” said White House spokesman
Tony Snow.

“One of the things the president has said is that these
people will not die in vain.”

Of the 2,500 deaths, the Pentagon said, 1,972 have come in
combat and 528 in noncombat circumstances such as vehicle
accidents or suicides. In addition, the Pentagon said 18,490
troops have been wounded in the war, which began in March 2003
with a U.S.-led invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein.

On an average day in the war, about two U.S. troops are
killed. The average monthly death toll is 64.

Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, noted the “sad news
that we have reached a sad milestone,” and the House of
Representatives observed a moment of silence.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed with some
estimates of the toll around 40,000. Sectarian violence surged
after February’s bombing of a Shi’ite shrine in Samarra, with
hundreds of people killed every month in Baghdad alone.

In addition to U.S. deaths, 113 British troops have been
killed, along with an equal number of other foreign troops.

Bush’s central justification for the war was to rid Iraq of
weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found.

ADAPTIVE, RESILIENT INSURGENCY

Defense analysts noted that U.S. deaths in Iraq, while
significant, are far fewer than in the other protracted U.S.
wars since World War Two — the Vietnam War where 58,000 U.S.
troops died, or the Korean War where 54,000 died.

Roadside bombs, known by the military as improvised
explosive devices, or IEDs, are the biggest cause of U.S.
casualties. Ham said despite good progress in detecting
roadside bombs and insurgents responsible for making and
planting them, the number of these attacks has increased over
the past several months.

The steadily mounting U.S. toll reflects an insurgency that
has not buckled despite facing a military superpower.

“They’ve been very adaptive and resilient,” said Ted
Carpenter of the Cato Institute think tank. “That’s one of the
chief problems that an intervening force faces in any
counterinsurgency war. You’re fighting on the adversary’s home
turf and essentially all the enemy has to do is to out-wait the
intervening power.”

Military medical experts say the U.S. toll would be even
higher if not for advances in medical care and body armor that
often saves the lives of badly wounded troops who would have
died in previous wars.

They point to: advances in body armor, with torso armor
protecting the chest and abdomen, heart and lungs and helmets
protecting the brain; improved in-country surgical capabilities
allowing patients to be stabilized and quickly flown out of
Iraq; and better prepared battlefield medics.

An interfaith group announced plans to toll bells at
churches and other places on the weekend of June 23-25 to call
attention to the growing death count.