The body count used to be an integral part of warfare--that meant counting the bodies of the enemy. RAF fighter pilots would adorn their airplanes with kill signs, Israeli soldiers put notches on their guns for each Palestinian killed, and the American military reveled in body count statistics in Vietnam. Now body counts are out; they are considered ill advised when dealing with a passive but anxious home population. Perhaps populations eating TV-dinners in air-conditioned environments don't have the stomach for the truculent warrior-speak of yesteryear. Certainly, the propagandists serving the Pentagon must have determined that body counts should be phased out; it is better not to cause anxiety among the American public.
But guess what, this author does body counts, "coalition" body counts. I will dispense with the ritual provisos that one doesn't mean the soldiers any harm, etc. The fact is that the number of US-uk soldiers killed is a good indicator of how the occupation is progressing in Iraq. It will indicate whether this war is a bloody quagmire, or if the dust is settling on the rubble.
The history of their body count
The rituals of war and its glorification have certainly changed. Ancient warriors collected the scalps of their victims, and so on. We will skip the long list of gory practices. One must just remember that several medals in the recent past were bestowed primarily based on a body count--the German Iron Cross during WWI had this implication. (The British and Americans, obviously more civilized, handed out medals for valor.) During the Vietnam War, General Westmoreland elevated the body count to a statistic meant to measure the performance of his army. The daily bulletins included body counts to show that the war was being won. Ultimately this backfired, and as Gabriel Kolko put it: " [body counts] simply horrified ever-larger sectors of American and world opinion [1]." Consequently, the body count was phased out. Today questions about enemy body counts are something that annoys generals--they are acutely aware of the image they must portray to sell their wars. During the next war, the media will have learned this lesson, and it will be considered impolite to pose such questions. General Tommy Franks won't have to state the obvious, that the US military no longer issues enemy body counts for public consumption.
Our body counts
On May 1, 2003 when Bush Junior landed on the aircraft carrier, he officially announced the end of the war. Like Moses before the parting of the Red Sea, he commanded the war to end. But no Iraqis were present who could indeed enforce an armistice; no Iraqi is obligated to stop fighting, and the hostilities will continue for the foreseeable future. It is evident that there is a full-fledged guerilla war, and that things may be getting worse.
The media tends to focus on the last casualty, and doesn't put it into perspective. For a public so accustomed to seeing stock charts with trend lines it would be informative to see the body bag chart to determine how the war is progressing. This is the purpose of graphabove [2]. The columns in red indicate US-uk soldiers killed by hostile action, and the blue sections are "other" causes. Note that the trend line indicates an increasing death toll. Projecting the trend line out through the 200th day of occupation would imply 2.2 daily US-uk deaths (current average = 1.3). In other words, the situation is worsening and the death toll is going to be significant.
Changing the color of the bodies
During the early 1970s, the American death toll became a major reason for the increasing opposition to the Vietnam War. One of the ploys Nixon used to extend the war was to shift the responsibility for the conduct of the war onto the South Vietnamese. This became known as the Vietnamization of the war, a.k.a., "changing the color of the bodies." It is already evident that the US wants to implement the same policy in Iraq. From the Indian press it is clear that Washington wants to obtain a large contingent of Indian troops, and pressure has been exerted on India to prove its "you are with us" credentials. It would be natural to utilize Indian or Pakistani troops because some of them already have substantial experience in the area. In some Gulf countries, the police force includes many Indian nationals. Saudi Arabia finances at least one Pakistani division that would likely be used either for external defense or internal repression. The US would like to use these mercenary forces to reduce its own exposure. Another solution in the offing is the creation of Iraqi units loyal to the Americans--reportedly 12,000 strong. Wholesale killing would remain an American specialty, but the retail side would be spun off to pliant mercenaries.
The US is also busy horse-trading to get more foreign troops on the ground. It must have offered something to the Japanese because Japan has offered a contingent to be stationed in a "non-war zone" in Iraq. When Prime Minister Koizumi was asked where this would be, he answered that he did not know! [3] Japan won't contribute US$15bn as it did after the 1991 Gulf War, and this time some of its soldiers may be the expendable currency--Japan is in a recession after all. Other countries joining this pathetic effort are: Spain, Poland, Hungary, The Netherlands and a wee island in the Pacific may send an entertainment corps (maybe some hoola hoola girls for the troops).
Although some noises have been made about the introduction of United Nations troops, this will be resisted by the US. The problem with the UN is that it would want some say in political and economic matters, and thus UN troops will be a last resort. It is only when the resistance to the American rule becomes excessively bloody that the intervention may be spun off to the UN.
There are a fair number of foreign nationals in the US army. Among the casualties since May 1st there are four foreigners (Polish, Guyanese, Mexicans). One of these received the US nationality posthumously. What an honor! Why didn't CNN or Fox film the spectacle of a coffin where the US flag is bestowed on the remains of the foreign mercenary?
For the color of the bodies in the US-uk casualty list, see the following table:
Post May 1st US-uk body colors