CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: John Wixted writes: “I’m looking forward to the day that I can bring you good news about civilian causalities in Iraq. Today is not that day.”

Plus this, on American troop casualties: “At this rate, 2007 will be more deadly for US troops than any previous year of the war. Casualties are still extremely low by historical standards, but not according to the new American standard according to which wars are fought in which no one gets hurt. The only good news continues to be that things are turning against al Qaeda in Iraq. Iraq might be a mess for a long time to come, but the chaos that al Qaeda deliberately created is, for the moment, not working out as they planned.” Read the whole thing.