Just another day in the life and death of Iraq XXIX

By Michael J.W. Stickings

On this Christmas Eve, please take some time to think about what's going on over there:

Four American service members have been killed in explosions, while seven Iraqi policemen died when a suicide bomber detonated himself in a police station northeast of the capital, authorities said Sunday.

The American casualties occurred on Saturday...

The deaths bring the number of U.S. service members killed so far in December to 77, which makes it the second-deadliest month this year, after October.

Meanwhile, there's this report on the state of the Iraqi police:

Some 12,000 police officers in Iraq have died in the line of duty since the US-led invasion in 2003, Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said.

The figure is from a total force of about 190,000 officers, he said.

The announcement follows a suicide bomb attack that killed seven policemen and wounded 20 others during a morning parade at a base north of Baghdad.

12,000. That's an astonishing "one death for every 16 officers".

Yet another consequence -- an enormous human cost -- of the gross mismanagement of this terrible war.