Back in 2005, Victor Davis Hanson wondered why the MSM never reports the number of enemy combatant killed in the GWOT, a figure that was always rather important as a measuring stick in previous conflicts. His article was specifically on Iraq, but the point it makes works equally well with Afghanistan, particularly given today’s anniversary:
In one of the strangest developments of this entire war, the Western world hears almost nothing about the aggregate number of jihadists killed by coalition forces in Iraq, even though we suspect it may have been several thousand — 10,000, 20,000, 50,000? Surely this has had both a concrete and a spiritual effect on hundreds of thousands of angry young Islamists, who are beginning to realize that a trip to Iraq may be lethal — and unwelcomed by most Iraqis who just wish to be left alone to form their own new government. Whatever one thought about the nexus of Iraq and terror before, no one now denies that our jihadist enemies are in Iraq and are being fought and defeated there each day.
Fortunately, in this post from 9/11/2008, “Captain Capitalism” has you covered.
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