Just another month in the life and death of Iraq V

By Michael J.W. Stickings

We haven't done one of these since last October, if I'm not mistaken. Why again now? May 2007 warrants the extra attention. The depressing facts, from Reuters (@ The Star):

The U.S. military reported three more deaths in Iraq today, taking the death toll to 122 for May, already the worst month for U.S. forces there in more than two years.

May is the third-worst month overall in the campaign for U.S. soldiers, behind November 2004, when 137 soldiers died, and April 2004, when 135 were killed.

A total of 3,473 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the start of the invasion in March 2003.

Add to the 122 dead the countless Iraqis and others who died violent deaths this month throughout the country. That's the human toll of this disastrous war.

And there is more to come -- much more -- even with the war over four years old and with success as it was originally understood essentially an impossibility. The warmonger-in-chief, who keeps redefining "success" to fit the failure of his misadventure, has predicted that the summer, and particularly August could be particularly bloody.

Consider what that might mean, given what has happened this May 2007.