December a Bad Month for Troops in Iraq

More than a year and a half ago, Dick Cheney said the insurgents were in their last throes. He repeated his remark last June. The fighting has only gotten worse and it's clear Bush has stumbled his way into the middle of a civil war where it's impossible most of the time to know what side to take and it's clear, in fact, that our presence does not help. In December, 111 Amercans died—that's the highest total in two years.

Although the total number of Americans killed in Iraq, if contractors are included, exceeded 3,000 several weeks ago, the number of our military killed in Iraq also now exceeds 3,000 and Bush shows no signs of accepting responsibility for getting us out of Iraq before the end of his presidency. Congress, the media and the American people will have to continue putting pressure on Bush to deal with his fiasco in a way that repairs our foreign policy, gets us out of Iraq and stops the drain on our treasury and the the lives of our soldiers. Congress, in particular, is going to have to assert its authority under the constitution and its responsibility in the difficult months ahead.

UPDATE (1/1/07 at 1 PM): Iraq Coalition Casualties has raised the number of American fatalities for December from 111 to 113; we need a more rational policy in Iraq.