There are over 1000 US dead in the Iraq war.

That works out to be under 2 fatalities per day over the entire course of the campaign. That’s not a huge number compared to the rate during WWII , or even the Vietnam war.

The number looks grimmer when you look at the trends though.

• During “major operations” in the spring of 2003 there were about 4 American dead per day.
• During the period from the end of major operations to the “transfer of power” to an interim Iraqi government at the end of June ’04, there were ~1.7 per day. June ’04 itself had about 1.4 per day
• Since the transfer, the number has been steadily climbing. The month of August saw about 2.1 American dead per day. One week into September, and we are already at 3.2 dead per day.

from icasualties.org

This uptick is even more discouraging considering that the US has been rushing to transfer security responsibility in more and more territory to Iraqi forces.

Tallies of Iraqi deaths are a bit less clear. Iraqbodycount.net estimates between 11,793 and 13,802 based on tallying reports from a variety of sources. Grim, but probably some distance to go before the US has killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein (rough estimates start at 100,000, not including war dead, or displaced people who may have died for want of food or shelter).

How any of this amounts to a war on terror is still beyond me though.