Grim News: Only Five Americans Soldiers Killed in Iraq Combat in July

You'll see some variation on the numbers, but for the purpose of demonstrating how well in command of the situation we are in Iraq, it's worth noting combat death of American forces are now at their lowest point since the war began in 2003.

Not that any Democrats will notice and give thanks to the military and our Commander-in-Chief, who today noted significant progress.

The number of U.S. combat fatalities in Iraq hit a new low this month, according to the latest statistics.

Reuters, citing data from icasualties.org, says hostile fire has claimed the lives of five Americans since July 1. Four troops died in accidents or the like, Reuters says. The bodies of two missing soldiers were recovered this month, too.

That's a big improvement over July 2007, when 66 Americans died in combat.

Only five deaths. That's about an average weekend for the community Obama organized in Chicago.

There is a rapid decline from 23 last month and 15 in May.

In a further sign of stability, oil output in Iraq is now at it's highest level since the war began.

Iraq's daily oil production is at its highest level since the March 2003 U.S. invasion, in large part thanks to improved security, according to a Pentagon audit.

``Iraqi oil production set new records this quarter, with output reaching 2.43 million barrels per day, the highest quarterly average since the invasion,'' Stuart Bowen, the Defense Department's inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, wrote in his 18th quarterly report to Congress on the expenditure of $50 billion in U.S. economic aid. Production fell to 1.3 million barrels a day during 2003.

Meanwhile, the battlefield is increasingly shifting to Afghanistan, where the death toll was higher than in Iraq.

In Afghanistan, 20 members of the U.S. military have been killed so far this month, the second highest toll in Afghanistan, after June, when 27 U.S. troops were killed there. As of Tuesday, at least 491 members of the U.S. military had died in the Afghanistan region since 2001, according to the Defense Department.