IRAQ WAR 

Troops in Iraq to reach record level

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_2

The number of U.S. troops in Iraq could jump to 171,000 this fall — a record high for this war — just as military leaders expect stepped-up insurgent attacks timed to a much-anticipated progress report from American commanders in Baghdad. Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director for operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the planned rotations of five brigades moving out of Iraq and their replacements coming in will create the temporary surge in U.S. forces.

Escalation by the Numbers: What "Progress" in Iraq Really Means

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174828/all_time_highs_in_iraq

American civilian and military officials now talk about staying in Iraq through 2008, or 2009, or into the next decade, or for undefined but lengthening periods of time. And yet Iraq (by the numbers) has devolved month by month, year by year, for four-plus years. There was never any reason to believe that the latest escalation -- or any future escalation, whatever it might be called, and whether accomplished via the U.S. military or by a growing shadow army of guns-for-hire employed by private-security firms -- could be capable of anything but hurrying the pace of that devolution. So imagine what Iraq-by-the-numbers will be like in 2008 or 2009, given the clear determination of the Bush administration's "strategic thinkers" to garrison that country into the distant future.

 Fatigue cripples US army in Iraq http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2147052,00.html Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis