Iraq War Statistics as of January 2006: "Darker" and More "Dire" Than White House Accounts

"An official assessment drawn up by the US foreign aid agency depicts the security situation in Iraq as dire, amounting to a 'social breakdown' in which criminals have 'almost free rein'.

The 'conflict assessment' is an attachment to an invitation to contractors to bid on a project rehabilitating Iraqi cities published earlier this month by the US Agency for International Development (USAid).

The picture it paints is not only darker than the optimistic accounts from the White House and the Pentagon, it also gives a more complex profile of the insurgency than the straightforward 'rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists' described by George Bush," reports the British newspaper The Guardian.
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In the process of updating Iraq War Results & Statistics as of January 2006, I learned some new, expectably horrifying facts:

-- About 20% of the 16,472 seriously injured US troops are victims of devastating brain and/or spinal injuries

-- About 30% of all US troops in Iraq develop serious mental health problems within 3 to 4 months of returning home

-- A secret Defense Department study found that up to 80% of US soldiers in Iraq killed by upper body wounds from 2003 to 2005 could have been saved by more extensive body armor than that provided by the Pentagon. The better body armor was readily available for purchase.

-- The average daily hours Iraqi homes have electricity has fallen in recent months from almost 14 hours in early autumn to 10 hours in December. And homes in Baghdad now receive only 3 hours daily of electricity to meet all family needs.

-- A recently released GAO report states that the Army can't account for or "reconcile" $549.5 million in spare parts shipped to US contractors in Iraq in 2004.

(Bear in mind that Halliburton Corp. and its subsidiaries, for which VP Cheney was CEO until 2001, has been awarded more than 50% of all contract work in Iraq. Halliburton is also known to have overcharged the US government at least $212 million...overcharges that were paid by the Bush Administration.)

-- US troops at the Camp Junction City base in Ramadi, Iraq were apparently exposed to untreated, sewage-contaminated water for about a year , according to official inspection documents. Halliburton Corp was responsible for the base's water supply.

-- Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard University adjunct lecturer Linda Bilmes recently released the results of an a academic study of the costs of the Iraq War. They conservatively project that the Iraq War will ultimately cost American taxpayers $2 trillion.

For a complete but quick-reading update of Iraq War results through January 22, 2006, refer to my article Iraq War Results & Statistics as of January 2006.

As the saying goes....read it and weep.

I can only agree with respected American sage Walter Cronkite, who said of the Iraq War on January 15, 2006 , "It's my belief that we should get out now!"
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