US Troop Casulties Down in Iraq

My childhood buddy Vassar, who lives in Iraq, reports that since the new Bush "surge" that attacks on US troops have dropped significantly. He says that where he lives outside of Sadr City prior to this surge his US camp was getting hit more times each day -- by impressive and frightful Iranian missiles, he says -- more times than he can count. Now his camp rarely takes a hit.

He forcefully debunks any characterization that US troops are haphazardly or deliberately destroying civilian structures or killing civilians, or in any way attempting to conquer or control anybody. To the contrary, he is convinced that US troops have taken heavy losses these years because of a failure of US troops to "fire back", due to the attackers firing from civilian neighborhoods. "Women and kids are getting killed now, though", he tells me by phone. "Because the GIs are firing back, and the people firing at them are firing from areas were civilians live."

Good thing for freedom lovers in Mississippi and Dresden that US troops "fired back".