BAGHDAD, Iraq -- More U.S. soldiers have died in combat in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, than died during main phase of the war, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
The death toll is a milestone, graphically illustrating the extended character of a war that many Americans believed was nearly finished after just a few weeks of combat.
The 115th combat death occurred on Monday--114 died prior to May 1--during the wave of bombings in the Iraqi capital.
In the bureaucratic language peculiar to the military, this is the record of a nation's army slowly bleeding in battle.
President Bush declared this week's extraordinary bombing attacks in Baghdad--killing at least 35 people and wounding 230, mainly Iraqis, on Monday--as proof that terrorists and other anti-coalition forces are becoming desperate and on the wane.
Yet the facts are that combat deaths have been increasing in numbers, not declining, amid signs that guerrilla fighters are becoming better organized.
In retrospect, the U.S. approach in Iraq suffered from a number of miscalculations, unnecessarily alienating many people. Military planners correctly anticipated that they could defeat Iraq's army with a fraction of the troops it took to oust Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait in 1991, but they underestimated the number it would take to keep order across the country after the war.
Tactical intelligence was poor. Most units had no interpreters, and interpreters remain in short supply today.
U.S. troops did little to stop the widespread looting that took place in Baghdad after the city fell in April. While much of the city was ransacked, the only government ministry that U.S. troops moved to secure decisively was the Oil Ministry, reinforcing the popular belief that the invaders were only after Iraqi oil.
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