Casualties

Last week: US Iraq casualties rise to 75,168
Compiled by Michael Munk | MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered 14 combat casualties in the week ending November 17, 2009 as the official total since the 2003 invasion rose to at least 75,168. The total includes 35,047 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 40,121 (as of October 31, 2009) dead and medically evacuated from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions - were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.** In addition, ICC names eight service members who died of wounds after they left Iraq and are not counted by the Pentagon.***

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by occasionally reporting only the total killed (4,365 as of Nov.17), but rarely mentioning the 31,571 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 39,232 (as of Oct 31, 2009)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,362 reported deaths include 889 (up three) who died from those same causes, including at least 18 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 196 suicides through Oct. 31.***

Key:

* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesday).
** New York Times, Jan 26, 2009
*** http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/oif-total.pdf

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By Dave Lindorff

President Obama, in his visit to China, held a “town meeting” with Chinese students in which he praised openness and lectured them on the value of freedom of information, saying that he is a “supporter of non-censorship” and that open access to information was a “source of strength.”

And yet America is hardly free of censorship. Heck, the president himself has gone to court to prevent the release of photographs of US troops torturing captives in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo. Talk about censorship! But it goes way beyond just such crude, totalitarian style control over information.

Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja
Iraqi former battle zone sees abnormal clusters of infant tumours and deformities
Martin Chulov | Guardian.co.UK

Link to video: The Babies of Falluja

Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.

A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war – including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted. Read more.

Last week: US Iraq casualties rise to 75,151
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered 13 combat casualties in the week ending November 10 as the official total since the 2003 invasion rose to at least 75,151. The total includes 35,033 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 40,118 (as of October 31, 2009) dead and medically evacuated from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions - were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.** In addition, ICC names eight service members who died of wounds after they left Iraq and are not counted by the Pentagon.***

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by occasionally reporting only the total killed (4,362 as of Nov.10, 2009), but rarely mentioning the 31,557 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 39,232 (as of Oct 31, 2009)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,362 reported deaths include 886 (up two) who died from those same causes, including at least 18 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 196 suicides through Oct. 31, 2009.***

Key:

* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesday).
** New York Times, Jan 26, 2009
*** http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/oif-total.pdf

Modern War Makes-St. Paul

Modern War Makes-Shanghai

Modern War Makes-Siapan

This Armistice Day, let us remember that civilians are 3.5 times more likely to die in war and its associated evils than soldiers are. And, that civilians do so without training, without equipment, and without medical care; and, without pay, retirement and other benefits.

Heck, they don't even rate the thanks and remembrance of a grateful nation for their sacrifice.

Every Veterans Day I remember that at least I know the immediate action for a grenade attack. Every Veterans Day I think of the poor innocents that have never been trained in the simplest survival skills-combat immediate action drills. At least I know to yell "Grenade!" and to fling myself to the ground, hopefully landing with my boots toward the grenade in order to provide the smallest target, and to cover my neck and head with my hand to protect those vital areas.

I wonder how many people that I pass by every Veterans Day know what to do with a sucking chest wound or any other rudiment of first aid for the massive trauma that results from military hardware colliding with civilian bodies.

I wonder how many civilians realize they will be the ultimate, though perhaps not always the intentional, targets of all manner of weaponry and military expertise.

I wonder why the peace movement does so little to convince civilians that they should be demanding rigorous survival and first aid training if they don't want to stop war as policy.

Each Veterans Day, every Armistice Day, I wonder how many deaths, how much destruction, it will take for people to realize MODERN WAR MAKES VETERANS OF US ALL and that WAR IS HELL.

Horror at Fort Hood Inspires Horribly Predictable Islamophobia
By John Nichols | The Nation

Thursday's shootings at the Fort Hood army base in Texas -- which left at least 12 people dead and more than 30 others wounded -- were of course the "horrific outburst of violence" that President Obama bemoaned and condemned.

But, because a soldier identified as the gunman had a name that led to the presumption that he was Muslim, the incident inspired an all-too-predictable explosion of Islamophobia.

News reports named the man who used two handguns in the assault on his fellow soldiers at a base that is a prime point of departure for troops headed to Iraq and Afghanistan as Major Malik Nidal Hasan. The major, who was wounded during the incident, was identified as a psychiatrist who had served in the Department of Psychology at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Bethesda Naval Facility in Bethesda, Maryland, before his transfer to Fort Hood.

Hours after the incident, and hours after news anchors and politicians cited his religion as an explanation for the shootings, a family member told reporters Major Hasan was indeed a Muslim. Read more.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2009) — Nearly half of all American children will reside in a household receiving food stamps at some point between the ages of 1 and 20, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Last week: US Iraq Casualties Jump To 75,136
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered at least ten combat casualties in the week ending November 3, 2009 as the official total since the 2003 invasion rose to at least 75,136. The total includes 35,020 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 40,116 (as of October 31, 2009) dead and medically evacuated from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions - were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.** In addition, ICC names eight service members who died of wounds after they left Iraq and are not counted by the Pentagon.***

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2009) — Americans think locally when they consider whether the loss of U.S. troops overseas warrants troop withdrawals, a new nationwide study suggests.

Researchers found that people were more likely to support withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq if one or more soldiers from their home state were killed there within the past two to three weeks.

That was true regardless of how many soldiers from other parts of the country had been killed recently, or how many total national casualties had occurred.

“If you want to gauge public opinion about the war, look at local coverage about the deaths of local soldiers – that seems to be driving opinion more than what’s on national news,” said Andrew Hayes, co-author of the study and associate professor of communication at Ohio State University.

Last week: US Iraq casualties rise to 74,808
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered at least seven combat casualties in the six days ending October 20 as the official total since the 2003 invasion rose to at least 74,808. The total includes 35,010 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 39,798 (as of October 3) dead and medically evacuated from "non-hostile" causes.*
The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions - were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.** In addition, ICC names eight service members who died of wounds after they left Iraq and are not counted by the Pentagon.***

By Dave Lindorff

How absurd is it that we have the government on the one hand pulling back from using a hollowed out mountain in Nevada to store nuclear waste because of a fear (legitimate I grant) that hundreds or thousands of years hence, some earthquake or other catastrophe could cause the stored waste to leak into the water table, while on the other hand we have this same government deliberately taking some of the most dangerous waste--the actual uranium from the used fuel rods--and putting it into bombs, shells and bullets to be splattered and burned all across the landscape?

And I should note that it's not just remote places like Iraq and Kuwait and Afghanistan that are being covered in super toxic and radioactive uranium dust--and I'm not just talking about the stuff that gets picked up in the wind and carried around the globe, or the stuff that gets inhaled by our troops and carried home internally, bad enough as that is.

By Dave Lindorff

The horrors of the US Agent Orange defoliation campaign in Vietnam, about which I wrote on Oct. 15, could ultimately be dwarfed by the horrors caused by the depleted uranium weapons which the US began using in the 1991 Gulf War (300 tons), and which it has used much more extensively--and in more urban, populated areas--in the Iraq War and the now intensifying Afghanistan War.

Mother's Final Duty To Soldier Son -- Escort His Body Home
By Rachel Streitfeld | CNN

When the Army flew home the body of Spc. Stephan Mace from Afghanistan, his mother climbed aboard a small jet with the flag-draped coffin for the last leg of his trip.

Vanessa Adelson would not let her 21-year-old son make his final journey home alone.

"I brought him into this world, and he was my baby," she said. "I thought it was my responsibility as a mother to bring him home."

Mace and seven other soldiers were killed this month in a Taliban attack on their remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan, making it the deadliest battle for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since July 2008. Read more.

By Dave Lindorff

On Oct. 13, the New York Times ran a news story headlined “Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange,” which was sure to be good news to many American veterans of the Indochina War. It reported that 38 years after the Pentagon ceased spreading the deadly dioxin-laced herbicide/defoliant over much of South Vietnam, it was acknowledging what veterans have long claimed: in addition to 13 ailments already traced to exposure to the chemical, it was also responsible for three more dread diseases—Parkinson’s, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia.

Under a new policy adopted by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the VA will now start providing free care to any of the 2.1 million Vietnam-era veterans who can show that they might have been hurt by exposure to Agent Orange.

For the sake of my son, why I refused to shake Blair's blood-covered hands
By Sheena Hastings | Yorkshire Post

"The service was to celebrate the end of the war in Iraq, those who had served and those who lost their lives," says Mr Brierley, who attended the ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral with his wife Christine. "Prince Charles and Camilla were there with Prince William. A lot of positive things were said, and the Archbishop made some very good points in his address. I felt that if this Government listened to his words they would end the war in Aghanistan now."

There were about 1,000 people at the reception afterwards, and someone pointed out that Tony Blair was present, across the room. "I hadn't seen him at the service, and felt that, as the man had taken us to war, who walked away from his job two years ago, it was wrong that he should be there at all at a non-political celebration.

"A while later I looked across and Blair was signing autographs for people, on the cover of the programmes we were given for the service. Suddenly a switch went in my head, and before I knew it I was over there. I said 'Mr Blair...' and he stuck his hand out to me.

"I told him 'I don't want to shake your hand. It has blood on it – the blood of my son, the blood of all the other soldiers who died and of the Iraqi people who also died in the war. You took us to war on a lie and you are responsible for all those deaths in Iraq. One day it will come back on you and you'll have to pay for what you did. I don't think you should be here, but I'm going to leave now.'"

As Mr Brierley turned away, Tony Blair was also ushered away. The bereaved father doesn't regret delivering the dressing down but wishes it had been in different circumstances. "It just happened the way it happened, but I don't really think it was an appropriate place, after such a positive, celebratory service." Read more.

Civilian Contractor Toll in Iraq and Afghanistan Ignored by Defense Dept.
by T. Christian Miller | ProPublica

As the war in Afghanistan entered its ninth year, the Labor Department recently released new figures [1] for the number of civilian contract workers who have died in war zones since 9/11. Although acknowledged as incomplete, the figures show that at least 1,688 civilians have died and more than 37,000 have reported injuries while working for U.S. contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More than 5,200 soldiers have died in the two war zones, meaning that one civilian contractor has died for every three soldiers — a ratio that reflects the unprecedented degree to which the Pentagon has outsourced the work of war. Civilian contractors make up [2] about half the total U.S. forces in the war zones and they have been deployed on the front lines far more than any previous U.S. conflict [3]. Iraq and Afghanistan are the most outsourced wars in U.S. history.

Despite the importance of civilian contractors to its mission, the Defense Department hasn’t been measuring their sacrifice. A little-noticed report [4] from the Government Accountability Office last week noted that the Pentagon has yet to implement a Congressional requirement to track contractor fatalities. Read more.

US Iraq Casualties Jump to 74,795
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered at least 14 combat casualties in the week ending October 6 as the official total since the 2003 invasion rose to at least 74,456. The total includes 35,001 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 39,794 (as of October 3, 2009) dead and medically evacuated from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions - were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.** In addition, ICC names eight service members who died of wounds after they left Iraq and are not counted by the Pentagon.***

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by occasionally reporting only the total killed (4,351 as of Oct 6), but rarely mentioning the 31,527 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the human cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 38,917 (as of Oct 3)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,351 reported deaths include 877 (up one) who died from those same causes, including at least 18 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 196 suicides through Oct. 3, 2009.***

Key:

* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesday).
** New York Times, Jan 26, 2009
*** http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/oif-total.pdf

US Iraq Casualties Rise to 74,456
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq under Commander-in-Chief Obama suffered at least four combat casualties in the week ending September 29, 2009 as the official total since the 2003 invasion rose to at least 74,456. The total includes 34,987 dead and wounded from what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 39,469 (as of September 5, 2009) dead and medically evacuated from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 100,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions - were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.** In addition, IC names eight service members who died of wounds after they left Iraq and are not counted by the Pentagon.***

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by occasionally reporting only the total killed (4,349 as of Sept. 29, 2009), but rarely mentioning the 31,514 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 38,593 (as of Sept 5, 2009)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,349 reported deaths include 876 (up one) who died from those same causes, including at least 18 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 195 suicides through Sept 5.***

Key:

* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesday).
** New York Times, Jan 26, 2009
*** Global War On Terrorism - Operation Iraqi Freedom