State of Iraq

The NY Times has released their new State of Iraq chart and oh what little difference a year makes. This one compares across Augusts (so August 03, August 04, August 05) on a variety of markers. Some of the findings:

• Of the three Augusts, 05 was the deadliest for US troops. Last month had 90 fatalities, 25 more than August 04, which in turn had 29 more than August 03. Major combat operations might be over on our side, but the insurgency is ramping right up.

• Happily, the number of troops wounded dropped significantly, 283 fewer than in August 2004, but August 2004 had 710 more than August 2003, so we're nowhere near post-war levels.

• Things are, as expected, getting worse for Iraqi civilians. August 05 had 600 being killed, a year before the number was 550, a year before that only 225.

• Estimated foreign jihadists is shooting up -- 100 in 03, 500 in 04, 900 now.

• Oil production is still 300,000 barrels below pre-war levels, but the GDP has increased above 2002's number. I'd like to know more about why that is, though -- how much of that is American-based reconstruction and how much is sustainable?

• The unemployment rate has dropped to 33%, though another way to say that is the unemployment rate is at 33%. If we want stability in Iraq, we're going to have to push that way down.

• About half the country's sewage is being treated (a marked improvement over past years), but significantly less electricity is available compared to 2004.

• There are more trained judges and Iraqi security forces than we've seen before.

Our delivery of basic services is, in some areas, marginally better, and in many others, a bit worse. More Americans are dying, more Iraqis are dying, there's less confidence in the government, less confidence in the country, more effective insurgent attacks, and a serious uptick in foreign jihadists. We're making some progress on training Iraqis to take over, but the country they're inheriting looks to be a mess. And for those who say we should remain until it's no longer a mess, I have to wonder why the steady deterioration with each extra year we remain there doesn't dishearten you some. While it looks like we're doing some good work on training/infrastructure issues, our security forces have been totally incapable of keeping the situation from degenerating.