Reality Bites

As of Wednesday August 6, 2008 at least 4134 members of the US military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press.
The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3362 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's umbers.
The AP count is one more than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Wednesday at 10am

As of Wednesday at least 496 members of the US military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, accoording to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Saturday.
Of those, the military reports 352 were killed by hostile action.

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Iraqi lawmakers, after weeks of late-night negotiations and intense US pressure, failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month.
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The bill failed because Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomen were unable to come to terms on a power-sharing deal for the multiethnic region around the city of Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields. Kurds consider Kirkuk their ancestral capital and want to incorporate it into their self-ruled region in the north. Most Arabs and Turkomen want Kirkuk to remain under central government control.
After a Kurdish walkout, parliament approved an elections bill last month that would have established an ethnic quota system on the 41-member Kirkuk area provincial council and reduced the role of Kurdish security forces there.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, vetoed the measure as unconstitutional and sent it back to parliament, which convened a special session Sunday.
When compromise appeared impossible, parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani announced Wednesday that lawmakers would break for summer recess and then resume sessions Sept. 9.
A committee will continue negotiations over the bill during the recess, he added.

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Parliament also has yet to pass a law to share oil revenue or to amend the constitution on such issues as the role of Islam and the nature of federalism in the government.
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Parliament did sign off on a $21 billion supplemental budget, a move the Iraqis hope will ease US congressional criticism that they aren't paying their fair share of Iraq's reconstruction at a time of economic hardship in the United States.

Material from McClatchy News Service and the Associated Press used in this report.