Apparently the U.S. has killed and captured more insurgents than there are insurgents

[ProSense]

19,000 insurgents killed in Iraq since '03

By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
More than 19,000 militants have been killed in fighting with coalition forces since the insurgency began more than four years ago, according to military statistics released for the first time.
The statistics show that 4,882 militants were killed in clashes with coalition forces this year, a 25% increase over all of last year.

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Last year, Gen. John Abizaid, then commander of military forces in the region, estimated the Sunni insurgency to be 10,000 to 20,000 fighters. He said the Shiite militia members were in the "low thousands." The U.S. military hasn't publicly provided any recent estimates.

There are 25,000 detainees in U.S. military custody in Iraq, according to the military. The numbers of enemy killed and detained would exceed the estimate given last year of the size of the insurgency.

Since the insurgency began after Baghdad fell in spring 2003, 19,429 militants have been killed in clashes with coalition forces, statistics show. The numbers do not include enemy killed during the invasion.

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"The numbers do not include enemy killed during the invasion."

Got that! These are the number of Iraqi insurgents.

"KILL 'EM ALL"? APPARENTLY WE ALREADY HAVE

I don't know why the war is still going on -- the number of insurgents who are dead or captured is now, according to the U.S. military, greater than the number who were fighting:

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And now 44,000 insurgents are out of commission. So we've wiped them out and we can go home, right?

Oh, yeah, I left out this estmate:

Earlier this month (January 2005), Gen. Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, the director of the Iraqi intelligence service, said there are 200,000 insurgents, including at least 40,000 hard-core fighters.

Well, there's an interesting alternate theory: that the U.S. is actually lowballing the insurgent numbers, and the size of the insurgency was (and is?) actually larger than the size of the U.S. force in Iraq. Could that possibly be the problem?

Naaah. I'm sure the insurgents are managing to fight on despite the fact that their numbers are less than zero because they're so darn evil.

Withdraw the troops!

[Selatius]

1. There were close to 300,000 Iraqi soldiers in the military when we invaded.

Paul Bremer, in his infinite wisdom, decided to dissolve the entire military structure and start from scratch, rather than trying to co-opt it and win them over. He pissed them off by telling them to get lost.

[truebrit71]

2. He did that on Smirky's behest though...don't forget that...

Bremer wouldn't take a shit without say-so from the Chimp...

[Scurrilous]

3. @#$% Zombie Insurgents! n/t

[auburngrad82]

4. And the vast majority of those killed were carrying Al Qaeda membership cards

if you're to believe the Bush administration...



Liberal bumper stickers

[Richard Steele]

5. Well, they don't STAY dead, y'know. al-Zarquawi came back from death 3 times...

...AND he regrew a leg. And he was just a #3 guy who wasn't
even FROM Iraq!

[Benhurst]

6. The Iraqis love us. True, 67 percent say it's OK to kill Americans;

but that's only because they are grateful for all we've done and want to return the favor by sending us to Jesus.

[Double T]

7. How dare ANYONE doubt the existence of phantom insurgents.

Like WMDs, they NEVER existed except in bushco's mind.

[damntexdem]

8. There is a difference:

WMDs the U.S. cannot produce except in its own arsenal; but insurgents it can produce in great numbers in Iraq, through its own stupid, incompetent criminality.