Monday, August 22, 2005
15 out of 18: A remarkable, if sad, statistic. The United States has been in Iraq for 30 months. 12 months for the first year and 18 months thereafter. Of the latter 18 months, 15 of those have had a fatality count that is greater than or equal to the same month one year prior.   Source: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count
posted by Quiddity at 8/22/2005 09:04:00 AM
2 comments
With all due respect, did you just invent the 18-month year? I've no idea which year is meant in any instance except that the white (cream?) bars are probably 2003. But doesn't that mean that the first year in Iraq only had six months -- or is it nine months?
I'm not normally this confused and your diagrammatics don't usually have this effect on me. (Plus, I am not sure what your point is in the opening "explanation.") Do give it a looksee and maybe another try for the ? among us. Thanks.
The fatality count at the website I referred to has them grouped by month. It has been my habit to compare a given month, say, June, with the June of the previous year. Typically, the most recent month has a higher fatality count than the earlier one.
In order to make such a review for the entire period troops have been in Iraq, the data has to be divided into two sets. The first 12 months of occupation cannot be compared to a 'year-ago' month, since nobody was there. The second period, which currently is 18 months in duration, contains 12 months that can be compared to the initial 'baseline' period and an additional 6 months that can be compared to the second year of occupation. There is no 18 month year.
The bars in the top graph have the color coding of: blue - first 12 months, burgundy - second 12 months, cream - third 12 months (half-way completed).
The bars in the lower graph have the color coding of: blue - first 12 months, green - a month that has a lower fatality count than the same period one year earlier, red - a month that has a higher fatality count than the same period one year earlier.
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