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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Monday, January 29, 2007

Iraq - Worse than advertised?

(Cleveland Plain Dealer) "Officially, more than 23,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in combat in Iraq. But more than double that number have fallen ill or been injured in what the Pentagon considers "nonhostile" action, a way of counting that critics say hides the war's full toll.

If the Pentagon also counted soldiers who were hurt in crashes or circumstances not directly involving skirmishes with the enemy, and those so sick that they required air transport, the figure would come to about 50,000, the Pentagon's own figures show."

4 Comments:

  • Iraq - Worse than advertised?

    Another entry in the "I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!" contest.

    By Blogger -epm, at 10:52 AM  

  • Agreed, but I'm really surprised that this point hasn't been previously discovered and publicized.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:19 AM  

  • I wonder how many "non-hostile" conditions are DU related.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:11 PM  

  • Fair question, no idea. If Gulf War I is any example, we should be seeing the beginning of a first wave just about now.

    Alot of the complaints and ailments of Gulf War Syndrome took some time to be recognized and reported.

    They did handle DU exposure quite differently in the beginning of the war, although I would expect that with the greater current difficulty of the fighting, and the accumulation of massive amounts used this time around, such precautions have fallen away.

    It'll also be very troubling to watch the women who have been exposed as they come back and have children.

    (Like PTSD, I think any reporting on this will come in a later wave that overwhelms us.)

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:22 PM  

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