Michael Yon explains the rise in casualties in Iraq this April on the part of our forces there:
April saw 49 U.S. casualties in Iraq, the highest total in seven months. Does this mean, as some insist, that the enormous progress we have made since the start of the military surge is being lost?
As one who has spent nearly two years with American soldiers and Marines and British Army troops in Iraq – having returned from my last trip a month ago – here’s my short answer: no.
We are taking more casualties now, just as we did in the first part of 2007, because we have taken up the next crucial challenge of this war: confronting the Shia militias.
Additionally, as I noted last week there’s a seasonal aspect to the casualties our forces take in Iraq. The largest numbers have been in April and November. When you look at the casualties longitudinally, despite taking more casualties than they had in March 2008, U. S. forces took fewer casualties in April 2008 than any April since the invasion in 2003.
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