Bush to Catch bin Laden Very Soon!

According to icasualties.org, who still seem to be the only ones keeping track, U.S. casualties in Iraq as of today are 2206. "Coalition" casualties are 2407. (That's casualty in the sense of 'dead', not in the British sense.)

U.S casualties in Afghanistan are at 259, with 2005 by far the deadliest year of the four we've spent there. "Coalition" casualties there total 324.

That's a total of 2465 U.S. deaths (not counting returnee suicides) or 2731 "coalition" deaths.

Compare this to the official death toll of 2752 for the World Trade Center attack and you see that Bush's efforts to catch ol' what's-his-name, or at least some guy with a similar name, have cost nearly as many American lives as the WTC attacks. (I've been trying to find a total official death toll for the 9/11 attacks but can't.)

Of course, this is if you accept the widely-held view that only American lives count. Bush's war has killed way more Iraqis and Afghanis than that.

But in terms of mere American deaths, you can see that Bush is indeed very close to catching up with bin Laden, just as he promised he would.

(Unfortunately the stats are muddied a bit by the large number of Sept. 11th victims who weren't Americans, and the pretty fair number of folks that both bin Laden and his business buddy, George, managed to kill prior to the Sept. 11th attacks.)