Four Years since “Bring’em On”

“There are some who feel like -- that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring’em on. We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.”
― President Bush, 7/2/03

It has been four years since the President declared “bring’em on” in response to the budding insurgency in Iraq.  Since that statement, more than 3,300 American troops have been killed and 25,000 have been wounded.  Iraqi civilians have suffered tremendously, with four million fleeing their homes and an estimated 35,000 killed.  The security situation has only deteriorated further, with the initial insurgency morphing into multiple civil wars and sectarian violence.  Incredibly, there are more American troops in Iraq today than were there four years ago when the President made his reckless declaration.

Part A:  American Troop Casualties

Since the President recklessly declared “bring’em on” more than 3,300 American troops have been killed.  Approximately 25,000 American troops have been wounded since that day.  [Icasualties.org, 6/25/07 ]

American troop fatalities are up 70% since the surge began.  In the four and a half months since Operation Fardh al-Qanoon officially began in Baghdad on February 14 American casualties have averaged almost 3.3 per day, up 70% over the same time period in 2006.  [Icasualties.org, 6/25/07 .  Brookings Institution, 6/21/07 ]

Civilian casualties are in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands.  The United Nations estimates that 35,000 civilians were killed in Iraq during 2006 alone.  No one really knows how many people have died since the conflict began.  [Brookings, 6/21/2007 ]

The Middle East is facing its largest refugee crisis in a generation.  More than 2 million Iraqis have fled Iraq and another 2 million are internally displaced.  [Center for American Progress, 6/2007 ]

Sectarian violence has remained constant despite the “surge.”  Although sectarian violence in Baghdad dropped in the first two months of the surge, civilian casualties nationwide rose slightly and are now averaging more than 100 per day.  Despite the early drop in sectarian killings, data from the Baghdad morgue gathered by The Washington Post shows the violence returning to pre-surge levels last month. [Washington Post, 6/13/2007 . Brookings Institution, Iraq Index .  Department of Defense, 6/07 ]

Attacks on American troops and Iraqi Security Forces are still averaging 5,000 per month.  In the first four months of 2007 attacks have remained at 2006 levels.  [GAO, 6/22/07 ]

Sectarian violence and civil war between Sunnis and Shi'a is rising.  Shi’a militias and death squads are fighting Sunni extremists.  The fighting has led to ethnic cleansing, the displacement of civilians on both sides, and infiltration of government security forces.  One of the ugliest incidents came in late March, when a truck bomb in a Shi’a neighborhood killed 150 people.  Shi’a controlled police units responded by systematically kidnapping and murdering 70 Sunnis.  [CSIS, 6/20/07 .  CNN, 3/29/07 .]

Sunni Islamist extremist groups including Al Qaeda are executing spectacular attacks and provoking a civil war. “These groups openly seek to provoke a civil war between Arab Sunni and Shi’a as part of a broader struggle for Iraq and Islam.”  [CSIS, 6/20/07 ]

Sunnis are battling Sunnis in central Iraq.  These battles include Sunni tribal elements in Anbar and elsewhere fighting against Al Qaeda and other Islamist groups.  However, they have no clear loyalty to the national government or to the United States.  [CSIS, 6/20/07 ]

The Kurds are struggling for autonomy and control of the north, displacing Iraqi Arabs, Turcomans, and other minorities.  This fighting has been centered in Northern Iraq around Kirkuk and Mosul.  [CSIS, 6/20/07 ]

Shi’a are fighting Shi’a in the south.  The various Shi’a groups are fighting each other in the Southern part of Iraq, especially in Basra.  [CSIS, 6/20/07 ]

America has been in Iraq longer than it was in World War II.  It has been 52 months since military operations in Iraq began.  As of July 1, 2007, American troops have been in Iraq for 1,565, days the equivalent of 222 weeks.  [NPR, 11/27/06 ]

Four years after “Bring’em on,” American troop levels in Iraq are higher than they were in July 2003.  There were 149,000 American troops in Iraq in July 2003.  Today there are 160,000 troops in Iraq.  [Brookings Institution, 6/21/07 ]

Little to no progress has been made on the Administration’s own political benchmarks.  No progress on reversing de-Baathification, scheduling provincial elections, drafting a plan for national reconciliation, amending the constitution, or reaching a political agreement on disbanding the militias has been made.  The only progress to date has been a draft oil law that passed through the Iraqi Cabinet but has not yet been voted on by Parliament and still faces significant opposition.  [Brookings, 6/21/2007 ]

Four years later, oil production is 21% below prewar levels.  Despite the assertion that Iraqi oil production would pay for the war, production is down to 1.97 million barrels/day from 2.5 before the war.  [Brookings, 6/21/2007 ]

Baghdad is still averaging only 5.6 hours of electricity per day.  This number represents only 20% of prewar production levels.  The Bush Administration’s Coalition Provisional Authority initially targeted 6,000 megawatts per day by June of 2004 and made the creation of a stable Iraqi electrical and water infrastructure a top priority.  Iraq is still 40% below those levels.  The average amount of electricity generated nationally in May (The last full month of reporting) was only 3,722 megawatts, a 6% drop-off from prewar levels.  This despite an effort to distribute electricity more equitably on a national level.  [Brookings Institution, 6/21/07 ]

Unemployment remains between 25-40%.  For the last two years, the unemployment rate has remained steady.  [Brookings, 6/21/2007 ]