military deaths in Iraq at 3,935 Sunday, according to count by The Associated Press

[QuickSilver]

As of Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, at least 3,935 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,200 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is four higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.

The British military has reported 174 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

---

The latest deaths reported by the military:

- A soldier was killed Sunday when his vehicle struck an explosive in northern Baghdad.

- A soldier was killed Saturday by an explosion in the northwestern Kazimiyah district of Baghdad.

The latest identifications reported by the military:

- Army Sgt. Tracy Renee Birkman, 41, New Castle, Va.; died Friday in Owesat, Iraq, from a non-combat related incident; was assigned to the 626th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

- Army Pfc. Duncan Charles Crookston, 19, Denver; died Friday in an Army hospital in San Antonio, Texas, of wounds sustained from an explosion in Baghdad, Iraq; was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

http://military-world.net/Iraq/106.html

[QuickSilver]

RIP Lads

[Logan13]

RIP Lads

For some reason, no one is creating memorials outside of their family's home akin to what was done for Heath Ledger........

[Red Ketchup]

http://icasualties.org/oif/

[Tock]

For some reason, no one is creating memorials outside of their family's home akin to what was done for Heath Ledger........

That's because of their Commander-In-Chief, President George W. Bush. If you don't like it, complain to him:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php...Transfer_tubes

Background on Photograph Ban

The Seattle Times Ray Rivera writes April 22, 2004, that "Images of war dead a sensitive subject":
"The Pentagon has banned the media from taking pictures of military caskets returning from war since 1991, citing concern for the privacy of grieving families and friends of the dead soldiers. The Bush administration issued a stern reminder of that policy in March 2003, shortly before the war in Iraq began." "Military censors instituted a virtual blackout of such photos in World War I. That ban continued until nearly the end of World War II. ... Images of war dead proliferated in Vietnam, and throughout the 1980s, the government regularly allowed the media to take pictures of coffins returning from Lebanon, Grenada and Panama to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the primary arrival point for returning American soldiers killed overseas. "But in 1991, as the United States embarked on its first major war since Vietnam, the policy shifted. In January of that year, the administration of the first President Bush began prohibiting media outlets from taking pictures of coffins being unloaded at Dover. It instituted a total ban in November of that year." "In 1996, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., upheld the ban after media outlets and some other organizations sued to have it lifted. Citing the need to reduce the hardship and protect the privacy of grieving families, the court held that the ban did not violate First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press."

• Nick Childs, "No cameras for US war dead's return," BBC/UK, November 4, 2003.

[edit]
Seattle Times' Coffins' Photo, April 18, 2004

• Hal Bernton, "Woman loses her job over coffins photo," Seattle Times, April 22, 2004: "A military contractor has fired Tami Silicio, a Kuwait-based cargo worker whose photograph of flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers was published in Sunday's edition of The Seattle Times. ... Silicio was let go yesterday for violating U.S. government and company regulations, said William Silva, president of Maytag Aircraft, the contractor that employed Silicio at Kuwait International Airport."
• Gene Johnson, "Cargo worker fired over photo of soldiers' flag-draped coffins," Chicago Sun-Times, April 23, 2004: "Maytag Aircraft Corp. fired Tami Silicio, 50, and her husband, David Landry, because they 'violated Department of Defense and company policies by working together' to take and publish the photograph, company president William Silva said in a news release Thursday. ... The firing was first reported Thursday in the Seattle Times, which published the April 7 photo on Sunday. ... The picture shows several workers inside a cargo plane parked at Kuwait International Airport securing 20 flag-draped coffins for the trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Silicio, who took the picture, told the newspaper she hoped it would portray the care and devotion with which civilian and military crews treat the remains of fallen soldiers."

[gateway12]

RIP lads

[Logan13]

That's because of their Commander-In-Chief, President George W. Bush. If you don't like it, complain to him:

So Bush is responsible for the general publics' fascination with celebrities and equally responsible for the publics' lack of appreciation for our military? The lack of logic in your views knows no end. I'll bet that when you stub your toe, you blame Bush as well.........silly

[joint]

vote for bush

[joint]

So Bush is responsible for the general publics' fascination with celebrities and equally responsible for the publics' lack of appreciation for our military? The lack of logic in your views knows no end. I'll bet that when you stub your toe, you blame Bush as well.........silly

I shit you not

[Pooks]

It is what u sign up for when u join the Forces.

Its a high-risk job..

if they were conscripts than I think we could complain about it,, but these guys are professionals, it's what they do.

[Rotary]

Conservative here.

[jnc995]

So Bush is responsible for the general publics' fascination with celebrities and equally responsible for the publics' lack of appreciation for our military? The lack of logic in your views knows no end. I'll bet that when you stub your toe, you blame Bush as well.........silly

I was kind of thinking the same thing, but your words were much better.

[Rotary]

Bush killed the Joker, didn't you know?

[southmadejd]

It is what u sign up for when u join the Forces.

Its a high-risk job..

if they were conscripts than I think we could complain about it,, but these guys are professionals, it's what they do.

I see what you are trying to say but I promise you that when all of these men and women were at MEPS the last thing they were thinking about was getting killed. You realize it could happen but it sure as hell is not what you sign up for. It is the ultimate sacrifice and the highest honor a fallen soldier/Marine can have but I still don't think you should say that is what they signed up for.

God Bless all of the fallen troops.

[Tock]

So Bush is responsible for the general publics' fascination with celebrities and equally responsible for the publics' lack of appreciation for our military?

It does explain why "no one is creating memorials" for the fallen soldiers when they arrive in the USA. Fallen soldiers didn't suffer this indignation back in the Vietnam conflict.

I'll bet that when you stub your toe, you blame Bush as well.........silly

No, I blame you.

Why?

Because I'm always kicking you butt . . .

[kfrost06]

I see what you are trying to say but I promise you that when all of these men and women were at MEPS the last thing they were thinking about was getting killed. You realize it could happen but it sure as hell is not what you sign up for. It is the ultimate sacrifice and the highest honor a fallen soldier/Marine can have but I still don't think you should say that is what they signed up for.

God Bless all of the fallen troops.

I agree and very well put.