Casualties.org: Iraq situation deteriorating - Turkmen under pressure by Kurds and US forces

Casualties.org

Iraq situation deteriorating - Turkmen under pressure by Kurds and US forces
On Sunday a US military Blackhawk helicopter went down near Tal Afar in nothern Iraq, killing all 12 persons aboard and bringing the total number of US casualties in the first week of January to 30. If the helicopter was shot down, it could be in retaliation for when US forces assaulted the city of Tal Afar in August, emptying the city, leveling neighborhoods with air strikes, and sending in Kurdish and Shiite troops after Sunni Turkmen,their political rivals. The Kurds claim that a large number of Sunni Turkmen had been Baath Party members and supported the Saddam regime, and enough had serious military experience that they would know how to get hold of a shoulder-fired missile and how to use it (typically they use SA-7s, but on occasion the guerrillas have managed to get more sophisticated SA-14s.) At least one other Blackhawk was shot down that way. Iraqi guerrillas killed five Marines on Saturday and Sunday with small arms fire and roadside bombs. Guerillas in Fallujah killed three of them. To add to the unstable situation in the country, economists are now saying cost of war could top $2 trillion. This after factoring in long-term healthcare for wounded US veterans, rebuilding a worn-down military, and accounting for other unforeseen bills and economic losses. The estimate by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes far exceeds projections made by the Bush administration. The figure is more than four times what the war was expected to cost through 2006 -- around $500 billion, according to congressional budget data. The new study is billed as a detailed analysis not only of the potential costs of sustaining the operation in Iraq for at least several more years, but also the expenses likely to be incurred by taxpayers long after US troops withdraw.