Military Releases High Casualty Figures

[babylonsister]

Source: CBS

Military Releases High Casualty Figures
Department Of Defense's Latest Numbers: 31,590 Troops Wounded On Battle Field

April 14, 2008

(CBS) CBS News investigative producer Pia Malbran wrote this story for CBSNews.com.


The Department of Defense has released its latest American military causality numbers for those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the figures reveal non-fatal casualties that go well beyond the more than 4,000 U.S. troops who have died so far.

As of April 5, a total of 36,082 members of the U.S. military have been wounded in action and killed in Iraq, since the beginning of the war in March 2003, and in Afghanistan, where the war there began in October 2001. The 36,082 number breaks down to 4,492 deaths and 31,590 wounded. According to the same DoD "casualty" counts, an additional 38,631 U.S. military personnel have also been removed from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan for "non-hostile-related medical air transports."

"That's a tremendous number," said Paul Sullivan, the president of the advocate group Veterans for Common Sense, who believes these latest figures paint a more realistic picture of the true cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars. He is concerned troop casualties, including those who have been wounded, killed and medically transported, is now nearing 75,000.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/14/cbsnews_investigates/main4012249.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4012249

[Hissyspit]

1. 31,590 wounded

I bet most Americans don't have any effin' clue.

[Kolesar]

2. 1 million Iraqis dead and 2 million Iraqis fled

To Jordan, Syria, and not a lot of other countries. Bush the instigator is not allowing many to come to *his* country .

[saigon68]

26. "Bring Em On" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[rcsl1998]

15. NO!!! A Minimum Of 70,221 - Please Learn To Read Orwellian!

31,590 'on the battlefield' aka ''wounded in action' PLUS 'an additional 38,631...non-hostile-related' - The McLaughlin Group figured were actually 92,000+ on this weekend's show, but I don't know the source of his figures...

[tom_paine]

18. Exactly. The Bushies lie like Soviets or Nazis. Exactly identical in this regard.

100%.

In terms of the frequency of Bushie, Soviet, and Nazis lies, all stand at greater than 95% of the time lying.

In terms of the "bigness" and audacity, not to mention the ignored demonstrability of said lies...100% identical between Bushies, Soviets and Nazis.

Absolutely correct. In fact, I would go further and say the Bushis have probably "disappeared" another 10,000-20,000 wounded off the lists. I don't mean disappeared for real, that more of an Emperor George P. Bush thing, rather than an Emperor George W. Bush thing.

Which makes the McClaughlin estimate probably the lower edge of the real estimate.

[rcsl1998]

21. I Believe McLaughlin's Stats...

...in my gut, I just wish he'd provide his sources so we could have correct figures at our fingertips...

[Thothmes]

22. Don't forget to include LBJ in with this crowd

38,000 Americans killed, probably 200,000 more wounded, and at least a couple of million Vietnamese cold in the ground or wounded. He definitely belongs with Bush, Stalin or Hitler when it comes to unnecessary slaughter for lies. Just my opinion.

[tom_paine]

24. Good point. But I would disagree with one thing.

You cannot lump LBJ in with Hitler, Stalin, and Bush for a couple reasons.

1) Whatever else was wrong with him, he was an AMERICAN (unlike Bushler) who believed in the Constitution and American Freedom.

To be lumped in with Hitler, Stalin and Bush (and Pinochet and Marcos and Saddam and...) one has to be virulently opposed to self-rule the people, IMO, and in this category, LBJ doers not fit the bill.

2) Perhaps more importantly and dircetly to your point. The types of lies that LBJ told were not so shameless and false as Bushie Lies. Often, Bushies like Westmoreland and Colin Foul, constructed the lies you attribute to LBJ.

Does this exonerate him? Hell, no! While I understand where you are coming from, I do not think it is appropriate to put the President of a Free nation, whatever esle he did wrong, in with the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Pinochet, Pol Pot and the rest on that side of humanity.

[Thothmes]

25. Did He

he authorized Hoover to spy on MLK. Real American there. You have not spent much time looking into rural texax politics if you think LBJ believes in self rule. Colin Powell was a hardly a major policy player in 1963/4, a senior Captain or Major at the time. Westmorland was not in Viet Nam at the time of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. This man was getting 880 American killed a month in Viet Nam. I guess thats acceptable as long as he has a D beside his name.

[tom_paine]

27. No, it's not acceptable if he has a D after his name and those are relevant points you bring up

LBJ was in many ways a bad guy. Of course, unlike those others you mentioned and lumped him in with, he also did much good.

The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Acts, to name two. College Student Loan programs and a host of other programs that to this day help.

As I said I largely agree with what you said about LBJ. I just disagreed with lumping him in with history's true monsters and tyrants such as Hitler, Stalin, and Bush because LBJ did have some redeeming qualities, and from his actions, at least some sense of right and wrong (unlike those other three).

That's all, please don't take it personally.

[Thothmes]

28. Fair enought,

[Dhalgren]

3. As Cheney would say, "So?"

Casualties don't mean anything. Deaths and maimings of Americans and Iraqis and Afghanis mean nothing. They are completely unimportant. The Vice President thinks that even discussing these immaterial subjects is, itself, supporting the terrorists. Come on! Casualties? Are you kidding? That is sooo "20th century"...

[SpiralHawk]

4. "With Five Military Deferments, I have no wounds. Smirk." - Dickie Cheney

"Nor do any of the other republicon chickenhawks who helped lie us into this oil-profits crusade. Sneer."

- Cheney

[Dhalgren]

5. Isn't it just amazing

that 5-D Cheney is such a model of the modrin man...

:rofl:

[SpiralHawk]

11. "Well, I only have one deferment, but it was SPECIAL." - Rush Limbaugh (R)

"Virtually all of us well-paid republicon propagandists are chickenhawks, but only I -- El Rushbo -- can make the TRUE claim to have earned my military copout with an Ass Pimple. Smirk."

- Rush Limbaugh, esteemed republicon chickenhawk demagogue

[Ian David]

6. This doesn't include the 6,000 returning veterans who have committed suicide.

Also, some of the 38,631 "non-combat casualties" were caused by being electrocuted by faulty KBR / Halliburton wiring in their buildings.

[Proletariatprincess]

7. I dont believe these numbers

They lie about everything....why would they tell the truth about this? Even John Mclaughlin on the Mclaughlin Group posted casualties of over 92,000 wounded. We all have read/heard about how they cook the books to classify the causulties. The bunch that stole 2 elections can't be believed about anything.

[Summer93]

8. Just number trickery

This is the number that gets overlooked every time

"an additional 38,631 U.S. military personnel have also been removed from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan for "non-hostile-related medical air transports"

These people were "removed from the battlefield" but get into the category of non-hostile-related medical air transports. This is number trickery.

What type of incident qualified this person for this special treatment?

Is there someone here who can explain this to me.

Thanks

[PATRICK]

12. Still hidden

either in that number or in the likely masses of soldiers not given transport at all are those deeply mentally affected by the war. All told, anyone experiencing long service and combat, patrol,prison guard stress maybe it's at least 100,000 with effective number of troops also lessened by low and inferior recruitment, equipment insufficiencies, morale problems, retired or switched over to Blackwater type jobs.

On top of that, this particular form of combat is specialized, not too successful, and even more de-formative of the ability to fight in different theaters and environments, putting the surviving veterans in danger should another urgent need arise.

All this for an occupation, puppet government overshadowed by civil war and the peculiar monstrous debilitating needs of our oil administration with Israeli hardliner fools to throw under the bus.

All the numbers coming from such an administration can be trusted for dishonesty, tampering, inaccuracy and clouding. estimates can then be made accordingly sometimes even more reliable than an honest administrations reportage.

BTW, how does this intrepid investigative reporter go about finding the facts? Apparently by opening the Pentagon official envelope and reading. If I could stomach the fraud I could do that job with five minutes training and a press pass.

[hack89]

17. A lot of accidents and illness

even in a war zone, people have traffic accidents, construction accidents, sports injuries, cut fingers, hear attacks, etc, etc

People also get sick.

[underpants]

29. Yeah-the number was 50,000 several years ago. I knew it was more like 70,000

I have heard this new "30,000" quoted so much on the corporate news that I knew something was up.

[lonestarnot]

9. 4,492 deaths. We just held vigil for 4,000 men and women. That

was fast.

[TacticalPeek]

13. The figure includes Afghanistan - standard obfuscation, hiding Iraq in the global war on terra.

The recent 4000 milestone was Iraq only.

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. It includes Afghanistan

...

[ReformedChris]

10. Nothing makes me madder than RePuke Radio pointing out the "low" casualities compared to other wars

They always put the "I don't mean to diminish their sacrifice" or "This is something worthy that needs to be pointed out" before they compare war numbers. These stats blow that stupid argument away. This war is different from anything that we have ever seen before. We are not defeating tryanny, we are policing a hornets nest in the pit of desert hell. Utterly depressing figures on causality numbers there. Bu$h will rot for what he and the rest of the administration has done to an entire generation of Americans.

[ShockediSay]

14. Nothing makes me madder than NeoFascist MSM letting Iraq go

from 'front page' coverage.

Look at Murdock's media; look at Zell's.

[rcsl1998]

16. K&R

[OKthatsIT]

19. I have felt for a long time...Bush has no intention of bringing them home

safe, healthy or alive. He wants them disabled or dead. And it looks like he isn't the only one with this intention.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Iraqi_corruption_Government_funds_used_to_0414.html

[bronxiteforever]

23. I am sorry I missed this on Monday-Why isn't this front page in our papers?

Horrible, simply horrible. "Tremendous number" I mean what can you say? and given the American political system failure and lack of public empathy for this,this war will go on and on until the money simply runs out and the military crashes from exhaustion.