It's a Numbers Game!

[urbsdad6]

article and links at:

http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/10554

Nearly 9,000 U.S. troops dead? A NATIONWIDE CALL FOR INFO FROM SURVIVORS.Author
peaceseeker
Date Created
29 Jun 2005
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Date Edited
29 Jun 2005 10:01:36 PM
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Current rating: 127
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This work is in the public domain
Has the Bush administration drastically understated the U.S. military death count by redefining "death"? The following article suggests that it has, and it calls for a nationwide campaign to honor deceased service members by naming and counting them.
According to the article: "...DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate almost 9,000 [U.S. military] dead"; this far exceeds the "official" death count of 1,831. How can this be? It's largely because "U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted."

In other words, "death" has been redefined.

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW:

1. If you know (or know of) service members who've died in Bush()'s wars, look for their names on the full, alphabetized "official" Pentagon death list, at www.tbrnews.org/Archives/list.htm. IF THEIR NAMES ARE NOT INCLUDED, PLEASE SEND A REPORT TO: tbrnews (at) hotmail.com. You're also encouraged to notify your Congress members, your local newspaper, and other interested parties.

( Note that the alphabetized list is updated regularly at tbrnews.org. It currently includes deaths reported up through early June. )

2. FORWARD THIS WEB PAGE TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO MAY KNOW SERVICE MEMBERS WHO'VE DIED.

3. Forward this web page to veterans' groups, other organizations, responsible journalists and respectable elected officials.

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"The Bush Butcher?s Bill: Officially, 80 US Military Deaths in Iraq() from 1 through 21 May, 2005 ? Official Total of 1,831 US Dead to date (and rising)"

( THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS FROM www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1682.htm )

U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005. The ongoing, underreporting of the dead in Iraq, is not accurate. The DoD is deliberately reducing the figures. A review of many foreign news sites show that actual deaths are far higher than the newly reduced ones. Iraqi civilian casualties are never reported but International Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN figures indicate that as of 1 January 2005, the numbers are just under 100,000.

by Brian Harring, Domestic Intelligence Reporter

Note: There is excellent reason to believe that the Department of Defense is deliberately not reporting a significant number of the dead in Iraq. We have received copies of manifests from the MATS that show far more bodies shipped into Dover AFP than are reported officially. The educated rumor is that the actual death toll is in excess of 7,000. Given the officially acknowledged number of over 15,000 seriously wounded, this elevated death toll is far more realistic than the current 1,400+ now being officially published. When our research is complete, and watertight, we will publish the results along with the sources In addition to the evident falsification of the death rolls, at least 5,500 American military personnel have deserted, most in Ireland but more have escaped to Canada and other European countries, none of whom are inclined to cooperate with vengeful American authorities. (See TBR News of 18 February for full coverage on the mass desertions) This means that of the 158,000 U.S. military shipped to Iraq, 26,000 either deserted, were killed or seriously wounded. The DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate almost 9,000 dead, over 16,000 seriously wounded* (See note below. This figure is now over 24,000 Ed) and a large number of suicides, forced hospitalization for ongoing drug usage and sales, murder of Iraqi civilians and fellow soldiers , rapes, courts martial and so on ?

I have a copy of the official DoD casualty list. I am alphabetizing it with the reported date of death following. TBR will post this list in sections and when this is circulated widely by veteran groups and other concerned sites, if people who do not see their loved one?s names, are requested to inform their Congressman, their local paper, us and other concerned people as soon as possible.

The government gets away with these huge lies because they claim, falsely, that only soldiers actually killed on the ground in Iraq are reported. The dying and critically wounded are listed as en route to military hospitals outside of the country and not reported on the daily postings. Anyone who dies just as the transport takes off from the Baghdad airport is not listed and neither are those who die in the US military hospitals. Their families are certainly notified that their son, husband, brother or lover was dead and the bodies, or what is left of them (refrigeration is very bad in Iraq what with constant power outages) are shipped home, to Dover AFB. You ought to realize that President Bush personally ordered that no pictures be taken of the coffined and flag-draped dead under any circumstances. He claims that this is to comfort the bereaved relatives but is designed to keep the huge number of arriving bodies secret. Any civilian, or military personnel, taking pictures will be jailed at once and prosecuted.

...This listing program is finished so act accordingly. If there is an actual variance of, say, 10 names, that is acceptable. 50 would indicate sloppiness and anything over 100 a positive sign of lying. As of June 16, TBR has received 32 new, unlisted names

*The latest on the wounded: ?Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, is a 150-bed hospital that's already seen over 24,000 wounded military patients from Iraq and Afghanistan since the commencement of hostilities ?. Knight Ridder Newspapers June 6, 2005 (Note: The Pentagon refuses to publish accurate lists of any wounded. Ed)

LINK TO FULL, "OFFICIAL" ALPHABETICAL LIST: www.tbrnews.org/Archives/list.htm
(The list is updated regularly.)

Article and links at:

http://www.rense.com/general67/coubt.htm


Bean Counters Cheat...
So Do Body Counters
By Jim Moore
8-27-5

It's one thing for a company to try to boost its rating in the financial community by fudging the numbers on its annual report. It's another thing for the U.S. Government to try to boost support for the war by fudging (undercounting) the number of soldiers killed in Iraq.

In essence, they're both crimes. Stealing peoples' money is despicable. But stealing people's lives is unconscionable. Yet, it's going on every day, right under our noses.

For two years now, we've been watching the death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan steadily rise to its latest "official" count of 1831. But if recent reports from independent news organizations are accurate, that number is as much a lie as the lie that got us into war in the first place.

One investigative reporter, who has been keeping a close eye on the actual number of Americans killed in Iraq, claims it's near 9800 as of June 30, 2005. He also says he lost count of the wounded at about 50,000.

What we do know for certain is that a Knight Ridder newspaper report states that a 150-bed hospital in Germany has already treated over 24,000 wounded military patients from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of these severely wounded soldiers die and are never counted. That's because administration lawyers speak the new lexicon: "He did not actually die in combat, he died in surgery, therefore he is not a KIA statistic." In other words, the U.S. government only counts those who died IN Iraq, not BECAUSE of Iraq. If that doesn't bring back what the definition of "is" is, nothing will.

There are certain other "sick" aspects of this numbers game which should be told here.
One, I believe, will particularly startle you. It concerns our wounded soldiers. It has been said that the enemy doesn't care how many dead we have; they prefer the severely wounded. Why? Because those soldiers who survive with physical scars and deformities and are released in the general population are like ambassadors to the enemy's cause. It's our amount of wounded that will lose the war with Iraq and other Muslim countries, not the number of our dead.

Another aspect is the deceptive, but different kind of bizarre numbers tactic that the government plays on us. We don't have 140,000 troops who have seen, or are seeing action In Iraq. That number is more like 500,000. How can that be, you say? Simple. We don't keep the same troops there forever. We bring one set home and send another set out.

This rotation system allows the Pentagon to send nearly a half million men into action, but not at the same time, nor all at once, you understand. It's a kind of a military shell game.

One more slippery scheme is worth a word or two. Yes, there are probably more casualties than admitted, but these are probably contractors, mercenaries and Green Card soldiers who aren't yet U.S. citizens--- so Karl Rove was supposed to have said. Leave it to Rove to "adjust" the body count, like he "adjusts" everything else.

We do, however, know that at the start of the war, President Bush banned photos and visitors to the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, where the caskets arrive by air. The object? To cloak the number of troops who had died, what else?

In 2000, a high ranking general had told a Harvard audience that before committing troops, it must pass the Dover test; that is, "politicians must weigh military action against whether the public is prepared for the sight of our most precious resource coming home in flag-draped caskets."

In a recent broadcast of "Face the Nation", this interview between Bob Schieffer and U.S. Senator Joe Biden about the Dover Air Force base took place, and this excerpt from it is particularly pertinent at this point:

SCHIEFFER: There's no question that the administration has at least discouraged people from reporting on casualties killed in Iraq.

Sen. BIDEN: True

SCHIEFFER: Do you ever go out to meet those flights out there?

Sen. BIDEN: I've tried to and they will not allow me to.

SCHIEFFER: Who will not allow you to?

Sen. BIDEN: The Defense Department

SCHIEFFER: What a minute. You're a United States Senator! And they're not letting you on a military base?

Sen. BIDEN: I'm allow in the military base. I am not allowed to go the mortuary. I'm not allowed to be there when the flag-draped caskets come it. As a matter of fact, Bob, one family asked me whether I would meet their son who was tragically gunned down in Iraq. I said I would be honored. They wanted me to come with the minister. The commander of the base told me that he could not allow that to happen---I'm on the base all the time---until he cleared it with the Pentagon

So in order for me to accompany a mom and a dad and a son to pick up the body of a dead son killed in Iraq. I was not just able to do it as a Senior U.S. Senator---not like I'm new to this. I had to get specific permission. I wanted to go when more than one Marine came back dead, and I just wanted to show respect. And I didn't want any press there.

SCHIEFFER: So you think it is the Secretary of Defense himself who is blocking you?

Sen. BIDEN: Well, That's my understanding. I don't know that for a fact, but it's not the military. It's the civilian decision in the Defense Department that you're not allowed to be there, just to show your respect. And let me emphasize here now. No press. No cameras. Nothing."

Which proves what Dr. Sam Hoff, a history professor, said about this whole disturbing matter: "There's one thing that doesn't lie. Caskets don't lie."



My thoughts: So what are the actual numbers? Is it fair to not count those that die from wounds received in Iraq outside of Iraq? In Vietnam did we count those that died in Japan and Germany from wounds received in Vietnam? What do the numbers mean in the long run?


Doc Urb

[Arrow]

Doc...

There are 58,000 plus on the Wall.Those killed in action deserve a sacred place in our history. The people that need to know ie the families of men dying from combat wounds or service related causes have always known the final count is higher.It was January of 1969 the local rag called measking about my husbandstime in Vietnam and wanted to knowthe cause of death. I cut them off knowingthey were just lookingfor another story to drive home their anti-warstance.I personally could have cared less what the civilian community knewin regard tothe death of my husband. Unlesstheywere family, friends or military our loss was just another sound bite, video clip or newspaper article to be heard, seen or read and then forgotten.

Arrow>>>>>>