US Casualties Down 30% in February

The news from Anbar Arianna.

American forces suffered 29 casualties in February, 25 of which were from hostile fire. This represents a drop of roughly 30 percent from the month prior. Good news, right? Wrong. Think Progress reports today:

Iraqi civilian casualties rose 36 percent in February.

"Violent civilian deaths in Iraq rose 36 percent in February from the previous month," according to Iraqi government figures. The rise from 466 violent civilian deaths in January to 633 in February "was the first increase after six consecutive months of falling casualty tolls." "February's casualty figures spiked after female bombers killed 99 people at two pet markets in Baghdad on February 2 and a suicide bomber killed 63 people returning from a Shi'ite religious ritual south of Baghdad on February 24."

It's strange how when American casualties are up, that's all we hear about, but now, suddenly, the left is overwhelmed with concern for the Iraqi people (what do they think will happen if American troops withdraw?). So what if American casualties have gone down and stayed down. So what if Iraqi civilian casualties have dropped for six straight months. They're up this month, and this is the worst possible spin one could put on the current situation, so that's what the left will report. It's instructive, however, to go back to that excellent piece in the Small Wars Journal last summer by David Kilcullen, COIN advisor to Gen. Petraeus:

Personally, I think we are doing reasonably well and casualties have been lower so far than I feared. Every single loss is a tragedy. But so far, thank God, the loss rate has not been too terrible: casualties are up in absolute terms, but down as a proportion of troops deployed (in the fourth quarter of 2006 we had about 100,000 troops in country and casualties averaged 90 deaths a month; now we have almost 160,000 troops in country but deaths are under 120 per month, much less than a proportionate increase, which would have been around 150 a month).

A proportional increase from last summer would have us at 150 dead a month. Instead we have 29. But you can see how Arianna spins it. If As-Sahab had a New York bureau, would it cover the news from Iraq any different than the Huffington Post?