USA Today reports that a key measure of combat dropped significantly in Iraq last year, showing that the number of attacks on US troops fell significantly in Iraq between 2004 and 2005:

The number of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq fell by more than a quarter in 2005 from a year earlier, Pentagon records show. Military officials call that a sign that insurgent attacks have declined in the face of elections and stronger Iraqi security forces.

The number of wounded dropped from 7,990 in 2004 to 5,939, according to the Defense Department. There hasn't been much change in the number of deaths, however. Pentagon figures show 844 U.S. troops were killed in the Iraq war during 2005, compared with 845 in 2004.

The DoD attributes the steady number of combat deaths with the use of more sophisticated and powerful bombs by the enemies in Iraq. These result in more deaths per attack, but the number of attacks directed at American forces has substantially decreased between 2004 and 2005. This belies the notion spread by Democrats such as Jack Murtha that Americans have been increasingly targeted by insurgents and terrorists in Iraq. In fact, the Iraqis themselves have borne a progressively higher cost of these attacks -- one of the reasons that the insurgency faces a major support problem now from even the Sunnis who want to see an end to American "occupation".

The Chicken Littles once again fail to match their hysterical rhetoric to the facts at hand, and suffer an even greater loss of credibility as a result.

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