A Horrible New Record

Military Fatalities by Month in Iraq according to the website:

Period	US	UK	Other*	Total	Avg	Days
11-2004	137	4	0	141	4.7	30
10-2004	63	2	2	67	2.16	31
9-2004	80	3	4	87	2.9	30
8-2004	66	4	5	75	2.42	31
7-2004	54	1	3	58	1.87	31
6-2004	42	1	7	50	1.67	30
5-2004	80	0	4	84	2.71	31
4-2004	135	0	5	140	4.67	30
3-2004	52	0	0	52	1.68	31
2-2004	20	1	2	23	0.79	29
1-2004	47	5	0	52	1.68	31
12-2003	40	0	8	48	1.55	31
11-2003	82	1	27	110	3.67	30
10-2003	43	1	2	46	1.48	31
9-2003	30	1	1	32	1.07	30
8-2003	35	6	2	43	1.39	31
7-2003	47	1	0	48	1.55	31
6-2003	30	6	0	36	1.2	30
5-2003	37	4	0	41	1.32	31
4-2003	73	6	0	79	2.63	30
3-2003	65	27	0	92	7.67	12
Total	1258	74	72	1404	2.26	622

And the number of Iraqi civilian casualties in November in Fallujah? The Allawi regime and the Pentagon keep saying it's very small. We'll probably never know.

Meanwhile, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Pentagon said Wednesday that it will boost the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to about 150,000, the highest level since the U.S. occupation began 19 months ago.

Most of the increase in the troop count -- which stands at about 138, 000 now -- will come from extended deployments of units already there as others arrive. That will keep some soldiers in Iraq for combat tours of 14 months, beyond the yearlong mission that most troops are told to expect, Pentagon officials said. . .

. . . "The ferocity with which the war is being waged by both sides is escalating," said Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "It is not just that the number of incidents are increasing. The war looks to be changing in character."