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And How Many Casualties Do You Think There Are?
by James Glaser
Most people, if they are paying attention to the war in Iraq would say our war casualties total 23,195. That would include the 2,727 Americans who have died and the 20,468 who were wounded. Surprising numbers aren't they? You see another 17 Americans have been killed since Saturday, and then there are the 18-20 that are wounded every day over there. You can pretty well figure that we have about 150 casualties a week. Yes, I know you don't hear that on the evening news, but that is because the White House and the Pentagon refuse to give daily reports of the number of Americans wounded. They wouldn't give us the number of Americans killed, except for the fact that the media could count up the number of funerals each week and report on those. No, we can't count the returning flag-draped coffins, because we don't see them. In fact, it is now a crime to even photograph those returning coffins. Nobody knows how many wounded Soldiers and Marines are flown to military hospitals every day around the clock, so we have to wait, some times for weeks for the Pentagon to update the numbers for those wounded. Now of course those killed and wounded are not the real number if you want to talk about total casualties. According to a March 19th article in the Village Voice by Tim Heffernan, over one million troops had served in Iraq by then. Of course that number is higher today. In another article by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, it is reported that "One in Six" returning vets suffer from Post Traumatic Stress, and for many of then that will be a life-long illness. One in six is about 18%, so it is a safe bet to say that 180,000 returning Soldiers, Marines, Air Force, and Navy veterans were casualties in Iraq. Add all those numbers up, and you have over 200,000 young men and women, who volunteered to serve our nation becoming casualties of George Bush's war in Iraq. That is an honest number that you will never read about in any American media outlet. |
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