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Al Jazeera (English)
    Baghdad Burning Blog (by Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl)
            Dahr Jamail's Blog from Baghdad
                Imad Khadduri's blog "Free Iraq" (scroll down for English version)

Iraqi Civilian Deaths ... caused by Bush's unprovoked war

 

The U.S. death toll in Iraq now exceeds that of the first three years in Vietnam. But, there's another ghastly statistic that is overlooked in the media: the spectacularly mounting toll of the severely wounded . . . America's invisible army of maimed and crippled servicemen. Why invisible? Because of the political propaganda goals of the U.S. government. Bush doesn't want you or I to see the truth of war, the bleeding deformities, disfiguring burns, and amputations.

We captured Saddam, but it took over 450 dead U.S. soldiers (and counting) and nearly 2,500 U.S. wounded (and counting) and more than 10,000 dead innocent Iraqi citizens (and counting) and countless tens of thousands of hapless dead Iraqi soldiers (and counting).

When you count the over 8,000 medical evacuations from Operation Iraqi Freedom for non-hostile causes, the total number of wounded soldiers and medical evacuations from the war in Iraq is nearing 11,000 (according to new Pentagon data provided in response to a request from United Press International).

The major media continues its blackout on wounded American soldiers and on the ones who are not so "lucky" -- the ones returning to their broken-hearted families in body bags. The Bush administration doesn't want anyone to call them "body bags" anymore -- officially they're now called "transfer tubes."

Recently a new $30 million military mortuary was dedicated at Dover Air Force Base. The gleaming, brightly lit, state-of-the-art facility was built with efficiency in mind. Air flowing through its ventilation system is turned over 15 times an hour to ensure that odors and chemical fumes don't cause problems for workers.

The new mortuary has rack storage for 380 caskets and is equipped with 24 autopsy/embalming stations, compared to four permanent stations at the old facility. It has almost 200 linked computer stations, about 10 times the number of computers at the old facility.

Also, the media rarely uses the term "wounded" anymore. They call them "injured" soldiers. If you accidentally injure your hand working in the yard, you might lose a little blood, and treat the injury with running water and a band aid. But "wounded" conjures up a different image than "injured.

If you're hit in the same hand with a 7.62 X 39mm bullet traveling in excess of 700 meters per second, you will lose several fingers and possibly a whole hand. That's the difference between being injured and wounded. Contrary to what Hollywood would have us believe, being hit by bullets and shrapnel and secondary missiles from high explosives can do a lot more damage than what we see in the movies. Tearing and cavitation of tissue, the shattering of bone, and the severance of vessels and tendons. But, this is not the image the Department of Defense and the U.S. press want us to carry around inside our heads. We might lose our stomach for war, just as most of these "injured" troops do the very moment they are confronted with bleeding deformities, disfiguring burns, amputations, shock and pain, and often permanent disabilities.

In addition to the human costs, the financial costs are tremendous too. It'll cost U.S. taxpayers at least a staggering $350 billion, along with the appalling blood sacrifice of our national pride and our maybe a slight ding to our international status.

posted by Hal 11:43 AM