State of the quagmire

Juan Cole posts a link rich roundup of the current state of the Iraq quagmire picking up on what is one of the more under-reported aspects of US military "statistics."

James Janega of the Chicago Tribune, embedded at the front, writes, "Though military commanders in Baghdad announced that 100 insurgent fighters were killed in the early fighting, along with three Marines, [Col.] Davis' figures were lower. He said "a couple of dozen" insurgents had been killed in Ubaydi, about 10 at another river crossing near Al Qaim, and several who were killed by air strikes north of the river. Other commanders said they had recovered few bodies but had seen blood trails that suggested insurgents were dragging away wounded or dead fighters." In other words, the claim of 100 guerrillas dead may or may not be true, but probably wasn't at the time it was given out.

Meanwhile the pace of US troop fatalities continues to increase at an alarming rate. How embarassing that the "mightiest and most well equipped war machine" in the world can't defeat a ragtag band of insurgents. In fact, as my post at DetNews yesterday points out, the insurgency is in fact winning.