US death toll in Iraq hits 2,000

Two thousand United States military personnel have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq, according to figures issued by the Pentagon. A sergeant wounded by a bomb in the insurgent stronghold of Samarra earlier this month died of his wounds and officially became the 2,000th death. Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr, 34, died in a hospital in Texas of wounds he received when a bomb hit his vehicle in Samarra on October 17th.

Meanwhile, President Bush has called on troops to persevere in “spreading freedom.”

The BBC reports that American commanders are now admitting that the US military in Iraq has been unsuccessful in fighting insurgents and at “nation-building” in that country. As one commander put it, “the US military remains better at killing than peacekeeping.”

The report said that the deaths in Iraq have made troop recruitment more difficult with all branches of the US military struggling to attract new men and women.

The occupation of Iraq is now being compared to Vietnam which saw nearly 60,000 US casualties. According to a count made by UK-based academics and peace activists this summer, nearly 25,000 civilians died violently in the first two years of the Iraq conflict while nearly 43,000 were injured. One of the groups involved, Iraq Body Count (IBC), says on its website the toll could now be more than 30,000. While many of the deaths between March 2003 and March 2005 are attributed to militant attacks and violent crime, IBC says US-led forces killed 37% of civilian victims.

The BBC reports that Mr Bush said on Tuesday that “more sacrifice” would be required of US forces. “The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced,” he told officers’ wives in Washington.

Sources:
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/middle_east/4376812.stm