And Some Things They Just Don’t Tell Us

by James Glaser
December 14, 2004

"They" in my title are our officials in Washington, those who work in the White House and the Pentagon. Now I understand when our nation is in a War, like we are now in Afghanistan and Iraq (Yes, American troops are still killing and getting killed in Afghanistan) some things fall under the title of National Security and that information can not be given out.

That isn't what I am talking about, no, I am talking about information that every American has the right to know. If the enemy knows it, for sure we should know it.

Those fighting us in Iraq can be called our enemy or they can be called patriotic Iraqis trying to get us to leave their country. Either way they are killing and maiming our troops and the best way they have to do that is by using Command Detonated Mines that are buried under or next to roads and highways that they explode as American troops drive by. Reports from Iraq tell us that fully one half of our troops are killed and wounded with these devices.

Up until this week, the White House and the Pentagon has been telling us that our troops have the equipment they need to protect themselves. Armored trucks and Humvees save lives and limbs. The enemy knows our troops do not have the armor Washington claims they have and that is why they keep attacking our troops with these mines and also Rocket Propelled Grenades.

Last week Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed that our companies back in the States were doing everything "Humanly possible" to get the armored vehicles needed to Iraq. President Bush ran his campaign telling the American people that our troops had the equipment they needed.

The Boston Globe reports on December 10th, "Despite Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's assertion that the military is outfitting Humvees with armor as quickly as possible, the company providing the vehicles said it has been waiting since September for approval from the Pentagon to increase monthly production by as many as 100 of the all-terrain vehicles, intended to protect against roadside bombs in Iraq."

The House Armed Services Committee released statistics this week that shows that our troops do not have the equipment that President Bush and the Pentagon claim they do. Only 481 of almost 5,000 medium weight trucks have armor and only 647 of 4,314 heavy transport trucks have it. Commanders claim they need 8,105 factory armored Humvees, but after a year and a half over there, they have only received 5,910.

So what do our troops do? They scrounge dumps and disabled vehicles to put on their own armor. They call it "hillbilly armor."

In a New York Times report this week a Marine Sergeant says, "If they i.e.d. you in this, there won't be enough of you left to package up and send home." That i.e.d. is shorthand for "improvised explosive device," the roadside bombs that have killed and maimed over half of the troops in Iraq.

So while it is true that we do have armored vehicles for our troops, it is less than honest for our government to tell us this, because only a small percentage of them are armored and the real truth is that Washington has failed to Support our Troops with the equipment they need to protect themselves.

Some of the things they fail to tell us could not help the enemy at all. Like the fact that we have a warehouse full of dead bodies in Fallujah. Officers will tell you they are insurgents while the enlisted Marines who had to move the bodies in there claim many are civilians.

Lt Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the first Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is quoted in the Washington Post as saying, "There are no civilians in my area, and I am absolutely convinced that the people we have targeted and killed are anti-coalition forces." However in the same article Marines stationed at a highway cloverleaf that serves as the major military checkpoint in and out of Fallujah said Monday that they had seen numerous ambulances and other vehicles leaving the city carrying patients of all kinds. "There has been a constant flow of causalities coming through. There are women and children and men."

Why lie to us? Mostly because Washington does not trust the average American citizen to keep backing the war, if they find out the truth. Yes, Washington will tell us how many of our Soldiers and Marines have been killed, but they have to do that, because they know the media could count up all the funerals. Even with that, they make it hard to figure out when people are killed and they do play number games so that large losses seem smaller by spreading them out. Also by making it illegal to photograph the flag draped coffins that are coming home in large groups, Washington keeps that constant reminder of battle deaths off the news.

Here is a head line that the Pentagon never wanted you and me to see. From the Boston Globe, December 9th, "Amputation Rate for US Troops Twice That of Past Wars." Not only amputations, but even the number of wounded has been kept a secret from the American public. The official number of casualties is now at 9765, but the Pentagon has changed the way they count that number, when the media does the count it climbs to about 20,000.

Yes we have seen pictures of Soldiers with new artificial legs, but we never see those who have lost all their limbs or the use of them and we really have no idea of just how many of our troops have suffered the loss of a limb or their sight. How about how many have been removed from combat because the horror has driven them to a mental breakdown? We don't know that number, but we do know that about 17 - 20% of all troops have been reported to have trouble with some sort of Traumatic Stress and that over 1 million troops have now served in Iraq and Afghanistan. UPI, reports that nearly one million troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since those wars have begun and that one third of them have served more that one tour of duty.

Years from now many of those troops that feel fine today will start having trouble with their war experience. The effects on soldiers in past wars, tells us that there will be many divorces, many suicides, and much sorrow for our veterans of today's conflicts and their loved ones.

Washington and the Pentagon do not want to talk about any of this.

"The death rate isn't great compared to Vietnam, Korea, and World War II. But these soldiers are coming back to their communities and people are seeing just how high the price is that these young people are paying." Said Dr. G. Richard Holt, a head and neck surgeon at the University of Texas Health Science Center and a retired US Army surgeon who served as a civilian advisor in Iraq earlier this year.

Dr. Roy Aaron, of Brown Medical school reports that the VA medical system "literally cannot handle the load" of amputees. Aaron is working with the Brown/ MIT effort on amputees and he went on to say, "Amputee research has never been a high priority because it is not fashionable.... Iraq has changed that."

In WW II 30 percent of those wounded died and in Vietnam, it was 24%, but in Iraq it is down to 10%. So many of those with just horrible wounds are now saved to live out their lives with us and they will be constant reminders of the price we pay for any war, unless Washington can hide these troops and pretend that they do not exist.

If Washington can tell us for over a year that the troops have everything they need and we find out that less that 15% of all of our over 9,000 military trucks have armor and that most troops are killed and maimed because of this lack of armor, it will be easy for them to forget about those who have given so much in George Bush's Wars.

POST SCRIPT

It is important that we as citizens find out what is really happening to our sons and daughters when we send them off to war. An informed public, one that knows the real cost of war and not just the dollar cost, can make better decisions next time Washington wants to send our children off to some foreign land to fight. I say "our" children, because those in Washington, almost to the man and woman have failed to ever hear their nations call to arms and their children have better things to do that fight in a war to make corporations money. Yes, they want to keep that secret too. But less than a hand full of Congressmen have children in the Military and I have heard of no one from the White House that has anyone from their families serving their country. They know better, because they know what really happens in war and they are doing their best so that we don't find out the truth.

By understanding the sacrifices that our troops are really making and holding those in Washington responsible for the promises they make, we will be SUPPORTING the TROOPS!

George Bush always puts a "happy face" on Iraq and talks about how much the Iraqi people want these elections in January and that things are looking up for that country.

This weekend 8 Marines and one Soldier were killed. The Marines were reported killed in Anbar, a vast province west of Baghdad. This includes the town of Fallujah, but they don't want to say Americans are still getting killed there, because we have already claimed victory in that city. On Sunday, it this city we have already taken, MSNBC reports, American jets dropped 10 precision-guided missiles on rebel positions in Fallujah. This is another example of things they just don't tell us. Most Americans think the battle for Fallujah is over.

In the capital city of Baghdad, 13 Iraqis were killed and 15 wounded right out side the Green Zone. The Green Zone is the heavily fortified section of the city that the Americans go to each night for some sort of better security. It is also the home of the US Embassy and Iraq's interim government.

George bush keeps telling us things are better in Iraq. In the real world.... in Ramadi insurgents launched several attacks on US Marine bases on Sunday and according to DR. Di'a al-hiti from the local hospital, the Marines return fire killed one woman in that city.

In the south of Iraq insurgents fired mortars at the British consulate in Basra on Sunday.

On average, there are over 60 attacks on American troops every day in Iraq, but according to George Bush things are looking up and he can say that because, Some things they just don't tell us.