WASHINGTON, March 24: Four US soldiers died on Sunday night in a roadside bombing in Iraq, military officials reported, bringing the American toll in the 5-year-old war to 4,000 deaths.
The four were killed when a homemade bomb hit their vehicle as they patrolled in a southern Baghdad neighbourhood, the US military headquarters in Iraq said. A fifth soldier was wounded.
The grim milestone comes less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the start of the war.Of the 4,000 US military personnel killed in the war, 3,263 have died in attacks and fighting and 737 in non-hostile incidents, such as traffic accidents and suicides. Eight of those killed were civilians working for the Pentagon.
“The costs of President Bush’s misguided decision to use force have far surpassed the administration’s rosy predictions, said the Senate majority leader Harry Reid.
“Our army is out of balance according to Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, and violence is surging in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is believed to remain at large,” he added.
According to the statistics released by the Pentagon, so far 29,396 US soldiers have been wounded in hostile actions.
A total of 60,000 soldiers have so far been subjected to controversial stop-loss measures. That means those who have completed service commitments but are forbidden to leave the military until their units return from war.
The 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment has been sent to Iraq five times. They are the first Marine Corps unit to be sent to Iraq for a fifth time.
More than 2,100 troops tried to commit suicide or injure themselves last year. This is a huge increase since 2002, when 350 soldiers made similar attempts.
Twelve per cent of non-commissioned Army officers reported mental health problems during their first Iraq tour.
Twenty-seven per cent non-commissioned Army officers reported mental health problems during their third or fourth Iraq tour.
As many as 88 per cent of current and former US military officers surveyed in a recent independent study said they believe the demands of the war in Iraq have “stretched the US military dangerously thin.”
This forced US military authorities to recruit teenagers. An overwhelming 94 per cent of recruits had received their high school diploma in 2003-04 and 79 per cent of them had their high school diplomas in 2007.
The need for fresh soldiers also forced authorities to look for recruits among offenders, granted moral waivers to as many as 4,644 of Army recruits in 2003. In 2007, this number increased to 12,057.
This year, the Army managed to retain 67 per cent of captains, short of its goal of 80 per cent, and in spite of cash bonus incentives of up to $35,000.
The statistics also pointed out that while the Americans were busy fighting the war in Iraq, terrorists attacks spiralled in other places. From January to Sept. 11, 2001, there were 1,188 global terrorist incidents.
From January to Sept 11, 2006, the attacks increased to 5,188.
There was also a 30 per cent increase in violence in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2007, including 21suicide bombings.
Suicide bombings in Afghanistan increased to 139 in 2006, with an additional increase of 69 per cent as of November 2007.
The Afghan government now controls only 30 per cent of Afghanistan.
