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True Number of US fatalities in Iraq and candidates silence
Last night a veteran shared that the official number, just over 4000, of US servicemembers who have died in Iraq is inaccurate.
He said that the fatalities do not include military personnel who die from their traumatic injuries while in transit to, or during their stay at, military hospitals in the Gulf, Europe, or in the US. "Once in the air, you're no longer in Iraq."
My question is how many have died from their injuries once they left country? Are they included in the official statistic? How many of our sons and daughters who put our flag on their shoulders, our principles over their heart, how many have died from their "Iraqi Freedom" experience? And more importantly, if the numbers are higher, why are the candidates silent?
And we're not even including the 1100 US mercenaries who have died while on the government payroll.
I would love to be wrong. Even if it's 4,000, that doesn't make it any less a tragedy. Any loss of life in a senseless war is one too many.
I'm a Veteran who loves his Country. I mean her no harm. However, we do our servicemen and women a disservice if we fail to acknowledge their truth.
Comments (5)
I suspect that they are leaving out things like this in an attempt to quell a negative public reaction. Much like how I'm almost 100% certain that the pentagon has lied about how many Iraqis we've murdered, I wouldn't be suprised if they're lying about this too... The whole thing was based on lies to begin with.
May 1, 2008 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
When I worked in Nevada casinos, there was a saying "Nobody ever dies at the casino." What it meant was that every person who actually DID die at the casino was listed in the newspaper as having been pronounced dead in transit to the hospital. For publicity reasons, the casinos maintained a spotless record.
Having heard the "once your in the air, you're no longer in Iraq" denial before, I wonder how many of these brave souls we actually HAVE lost. I've always considered the official count to be heavily understated.
May 1, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not only the candidates that are silent, the media doesn't really care and the American people aren't demanding to know. It's easier for people to ignore what's going on if it's not affecting them directly. Right now, what's affecting them is the economy and that's where all the attention is. It's really kind of sad.
May 1, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
The official counts do include servicemembers who die outside Iraq ("out of theater"). See the iCasualties page on this, http://icasualties.org/oif/Outoftheater.aspx , for a list and explanation.
May 1, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll definitely look into it. Thanks dedieste.
Hopefully you're right.
Over four thousand is still a travesty.
Wrong War at the Wrong time.
May 1, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
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