Numbers Of U.S. Dead, Wounded Growing Faster:

"The Prospects In Iraq Are Grim"

RUMSFELD’S REAL PRIORITY

Dec.30, 2004 ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press, WASHINGTON & By John Grant Emeigh / Post-Tribune staff writer

Key measures of the level of insurgent violence against American forces in Iraq, numbers of dead, wounded and insurgent attacks, show the situation has gotten worse since the summer.

They suggest insurgents are growing more proficient.

For example:

The U.S. military suffered at least 348 deaths in Iraq over the final four months of the year, more than in any other similar period since the invasion in March 2003.

The number of wounded surpassed 10,000, with more than a quarter injured in the last four months as direct combat, roadside bombs and suicide attacks escalated.

When President Bush declared May1, 2003, that major combat operations were over, the number wounded stood at just 542.

The number of attacks on U.S. and allied troops grew from an estimated 1,400 attacks in September to 1,600in October and 1,950in November. A year earlier, the attacks numbered 649 in September,896 in October and 864 in November.

"The prospects in Iraq are grim," Dan Goure, an analyst at the private Lexington Institute think tank in Washington, said Thursday.

U.S. commanders constantly analyze the insurgents' tactics and make adjustments.

Yet although U.S. forces have found tons of hidden weaponry and ammunition, the insurgents kill almost daily with makeshift bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

Pentagon statistics show that for all of 2004, at least 838 U.S. troops died in Iraq.

Of that total, more than 700 were killed in action, by far the highest number of American battlefield deaths since at least 1980, the first year the Pentagon compiled all-service casualty statistics. It almost certainly is the highest KIA total for any year since the Vietnam War.

U.S. deaths averaged 62 per month through the first half of the year.

But since June 28, when U.S. officials restored Iraqi sovereignty and dissolved the U.S. civilian occupation authority, that average has jumped to about 78.

Deaths among U.S. National Guard and Reserve troops are rising, reaching a single-month peak of 27 in November.

At least 17 were killed in December. Nearly 200 Guard and Reserve troops have died since the war began, and more than one-third of those deaths happened in the past four months.

According to statistics released by the Pentagon, American forces suffered more than 10,000wounded in action from the beginning of the war through Dec.22.

Through the first week of April, the casualty total was 3,178. By September the total had reached 7,000.