The Senate voted today to keep a withdrawal date of March 31, 2008 in the $122 billion bill for war funding.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/washington/28cnd-cong.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Congress passes bill requiring troop withdrawal from Iraq by fall 2008. Bush promises veto, according to NPR.
Souce: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9104337
More than 770 U.S. civilians working for U.S. firms have lost their lives supporting the U.S. military in Iraq, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703260081mar26,1,5984421.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Casualties in Iraq
Iraqi civilians:
At least 65 Iraqi civilians were killed today when car bombs exploded in Tal Afar markets, according to the Associated Press.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/27/international/i145909D65.DTL
98,000: Killed since 3/03
Source: www.thelancet.com
59,801 – 65,660: Killed since 1/03
For a week by week assessment of significant incidents and trends in Iraqi civilian casualties, go to A Week in Iraq by Lily Hamourtziadou. She is a member of the Iraq Body Count project, which maintains and updates the world’s only independent and comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq.
Source: http://www.iraqbodycount.net
A Week in Iraq: Week ending 25 March 2007:
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/editorial/weekiniraq/37/
For first hand accounts of the grave situation in Iraq, visit some of these blogs:
www.ejectiraqikkk.blogspot.com
www.healingiraq.blogspot.com
www.afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com
U.S. military:
U.S. military deaths at 3,241, according to the Associated Press.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/27/MNGRUORUHB1.DTL
3,468: Killed since the U.S. invasion of Iraq 3/20/03
Source: http://www.icasualties.org/
For the Department of Defense statistics go to: http://www.defenselink.mil/
For a more detailed list of U.S. Military killed in the War in Iraq go to:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/2007.01.html
Iraq Military:
30,000: Killed since 2003
Source:http://www.infoshout.com
Journalists:
153 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war four years ago, making Iraq the world’s most dangerous country for the press, according to Reporters without borders.
Source: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21339
155: Killed since 3/03
Source: http://www.infoshout.com/
Refugees:
The Bush administration plans to increase quota of Iraqi refugees allowed into the U.S. from 500 to 7,000 next year in response to the growing refugee crisis, according to the Guardian Unlimited.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2013034,00.html
Border policies are tightening because one million Iraqi refugees have already fled to Jordan and another one million to Syria. Iraqi refugees who manage to make it out of Iraq still can’t work, have difficulty attending school and are not eligible for health care. Many still need to return to Iraq to escape poverty, according to BBC news.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6293807.stm
1.6 million: Iraqis displaced internally
1.8 million: Iraqis displaced to neighboring states
Many refugees were displaced prior to 2003, but an increasing number are fleeing now, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ estimates.
Source: http://www.unhcr.org/iraq.html
U.S. Military Wounded:
47,657: Wounded since 3/19/03 to 1/6/07
Source: http://www.icasualties.org/
The Guardian cost of Iraq war report (3/27/07): So far, $411 billion for the U.S., $52 billion for California and $1 billion for San Francisco.
Compiled by Paula Connelly
On the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, Bush asks congress to pass an emergency war-spending bill, according to the New York Times.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/washington/19cnd-prexy.html?hp
Bush asked congress to approve $622 billion for defense spending, most for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a $2.9 trillion budget request for 2008, according to Reuters.
Source: http://today.reuters.com/
Here is a running total of the cost of the Iraq War to the U.S. taxpayer, provided by the National Priorities Project located in Northampton, Massachusetts. The number is based on Congressional appropriations. Niko Matsakis of Boston, MA and Elias Vlanton of Takoma Park, MD originally created the count in 2003 on costofwar.com. After maintaining it on their own for the first year, they gave it to the National Priorities Project to contribute to their ongoing educational efforts.
To bring the cost of the war home, please note that California has already lost $46 billion and San Francisco has lost $1 billion to the Bush war and his mistakes. In San Francisco alone, the funds used for the war in Iraq could have hired 21,264 additional public school teachers for one year, we could have built 11,048 additional housing units or we could have provided 59,482 students four-year scholarships at public universities. For a further breakdown of the cost of the war to your community, see the NPP website aptly titled “turning data into action.”