Violence Down Dramatically in September

I remember back in the beginning of 2003, Democrats claimed that we had a jobless recovery. All of our economic numbers were better however up to the middle of 2003 at least, our economy continued to lose jobs. That all ended in July of 2003, when our economy gained jobs for the first time and didn't stop for four years and counting.

In a similar way, anti war types have claimed that violence is not down and have used year over year comparisons to make that claim. In other words, even though violence has continued to drop from May through August, it has continued to be higher compared to the same time last year, and thus the anti war folks have maintained that violence is in fact on the rise. That narrative comes crashing to a halt with the very latest September numbers.

Deaths among American forces and Iraqi civilians fell dramatically last month to their lowest levels in more than a year, according to figures compiled by the U.S. military, the Iraqi government and The Associated Press.The decline signaled a U.S. success in bringing down violence in Baghdadand surrounding regions since Washington completed its infusion of 30,000 more troops on June 15.

A total of 64 American forces died in September — the lowest monthly toll since July 2006.The decline in Iraqi civilian deaths was even more dramatic, falling from 1,975 in August to 922 last month, a decline of 53.3 percent. Thebreakdown in September was 844 civilians and 78 police and Iraqi soldiers,according to Iraq's ministries of Health, Interior and Defense.In August, AP figures showed 1,809 civilians and 155 police and Iraqisoldiers were killed in sectarian violence. The civilian death toll has not been so low since June 2006, when 847 Iraqis died.

These numbers are even more impressive for several more reasons. As to our own soldiers deaths, many surge critics claimed that more troops meant more troops to shoot at. Thus, they are not only down but considering that there are about 25% more troops in the field the numbers are even more impressive. Second, Al Qaed claimed that September would be their own Tet offensive.

Here is an example of the violence they hoped to cause.

Dozens of fighters linked to al-Qaida in Iraq streamed into Shiite villagesnorth of Baghdad today, torching homes and killing at least 15 people beforeIraqi police and defiant residents drove them away, police and army officialssaid.In all, at least 41 people were killed or found dead nationwide — includingnine shot by security contractors in Baghdad, police said, and five who diedwhen a booby-trapped bicycle exploded near a cafe serving tea and food duringRamadan fasting hours.The bloodshed came the day after al-Qaida in Iraq announced a new offensive in theIslamic holy month and was a blow to government hopes that a peaceful Ramadan would demonstrate the success of the seven-month operation in the capital.

Clearly, the offensive failed. Deaths in Iraq fell below 1000 for the first time since June 2006. While the enemy remains ever deadly, there is a story from Sunday that should put the the numbers into perspective

Over the weekend, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed more than 60 insurgent andmilitia fighters in intense battles, with most of the casualties believed tohave been al-Qaida fighters, officials said.U.S. aircraft killed more than20 Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters who opened fire on an American air patrol northwestof Baghdad, the U.S. command said Sunday.The firefight between U.S. aircraftand the insurgent fighters occurred Saturday about 17 miles northwest of thecapital, the military said

Thus, in one weekend, the U.S. military killed as many bad guys as got killed in the entire month in Iraq. That is a staggering total and really can not be spun. It was a very good month for the good guys in Iraq and a very bad month for the bad guys in September.