corrente

You know, I think when Bush's handlers came up with "catastrophic success" they really meant to say "Pyhrric victory"... Gee, I can't imagine why Iraq coverage has dropped off the front pages.

Anyhow, as always, you've got to look at the details:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - About 1,100 U.S. soldiers and Marines were wounded in Iraq last month, by far the highest combat injury toll for any month since the war began and an indication of the intensity of battles flaring in urban areas.

U.S. medical commanders say the sharp rise in battlefield injuries reflects more than three weeks of fighting by two Army and one Marine battalion in the southern city of Najaf. At the same time, U.S. units frequently faced combat in a sprawling Shia Muslim slum in Baghdad and in the Sunni cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra, all of which remain under the control of insurgents two months after the transfer of political authority.

So the 1,100 casualties were for what, exactly?

"They were doing battlefield urban operations in four places at one time," said Lt. Col. Albert Maas, operations officer for the 2nd Medical Brigade, which oversees U.S. combat hospitals in Iraq. "It's like working in downtown Detroit. You're going literally building to building."

Last month's toll of 1,112 compared with 533 troops injured in July, 589 in June and 818 in May, according to Globalsecurity.org, based in Alexandria, Va.

In August, 66 U.S. service personnel were killed in Iraq, according to the Defense Department. The toll was the highest since May, when 80 fatalities were recorded. But it was about half the 135 U.S. combat deaths in April, when a sporadic guerrilla war that had largely been confined to the so-called Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad spread to cities across the Shia Muslim belt in southern Iraq.

One possible explanation [for why deaths didn't rise in tandem with injuries] lay in the brawn some units brought to the fight in crowded city centers. In Najaf, for example, two of the three U.S. battalions squaring off in close quarters against a Shia militia were categorized as "heavy armored." Army officers said their Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles not only offer substantial protection but also answered attacks with immediate and overwhelming large-caliber salvos.

Way to win the hearts and minds of the people.... Sounds more like tactical success and strategic failure to me (Talking Points Memo)

Capt. Neil Taufen, an emergency room doctor, said the pace was all the more striking because it came after a quiet stretch. "July was just dull, and it was like: Everything's going to be all right. And then Najaf fired up, and it was just like nothing had ever changed," said Taufen, of Fort Sill, Okla.

Yep.

But U.S. forces continued to clash with Sunni Muslim insurgents and foreign-born fighters west and north of Baghdad. Twenty-six Marines were killed last month in Anbar province, which takes in Fallujah and Ramadi and extends across the desert to Syria.

Insurgents hold sway in both cities and routinely attack U.S. patrols. "It's always kind of a smoldering fight out there," Kidwell said.

Parts of Baghdad also remain combat zones.
More and more often, children are lobbing the grenades, Ford said. Insurgents offer boys of 10 or 12 years old $150 to toss a grenade at a U.S. patrol, he said.

"For the longest time we've had a good relationship with the children," Ford said. "Now this. Who enjoys putting a bead on a kid? Nobody. That's why they paid them."
(via Newsday)

Nice. Bush has managed to tie down the entire army in an urban war that we can't win. Oh well, at least it's not a land war in Asia!