it's official

3000 ^{1, 2} deaths confirmed by the department of defense.

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¹ 3006 reported deaths at iraq coalition casualy count

² 3013 reported deaths at globalsecurity.org

and to start off the year ...

3002.^{1, 2}

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¹ according to the iraq coalition casualty count, "two task force lightning soldiers assigned to 3rd brigade combat team, 1st cavalry division, were killed sunday as a result of an explosion while conducting operations in diyala province."
² the globalsecurity.org count continues to stand at 3002.

happy new year, mr. president

3000.^{1, 2, 3}

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¹ according to the iraq coalition casualty count.
² the globalsecurity.org count continues to stand at 3002.
³ thinkprogress.org identifies the 3000th casualty as "specialist dustin r. donica, 22, of spring, texas, killed thursday by small arms fire in baghdad."

minus one

2999.¹

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¹ (the globalsecurity.org count continues to stand at 3002)

minus two

2998.¹

that didn't take very long.

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¹ (the globalsecurity.org count continues to stand at 3002)

minus three

2997.^{1, 2}

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¹ (december is now the deadliest month of 2006)
² (the globalsecurity.org count continues to stand at 3002)

the nth man?

globalsecurity.org is now reporting that 3002 u.s. servicemen have been killed in iraq.

for my countdown i have been tracking the numbers at the iraq coalition casuality count, which, since my last update and for the first time that i have noticed, have been reduced by one for a current total of 2995.

minus four

2996.¹

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¹ (now tied with october as the deadliest month of 2006)

minus seven

2993.

minus eight

2992.

countdown

2991.

blood on the shoulder of narcissus

2990.

as little as a week ago, it did not seem likely, but the number of u.s. deaths in iraq may pass 3000 before the year's end.

while december's deaths (101 so far) are still lower than october's high (106), the casualty rate (3.68/day¹) has picked up dramatically and has already surpassed october's (3.55/day²).

that number will sit like a vulture on bush's shoulder during his coming state of the union address.

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^{1, 2} (includes all coalition deaths)