Posted on 09/13/2003 9:16:27 PM PDT by PatrioticCowboy
The true scale of American casualties in Iraq is revealed today by new figures obtained by The Observer, which show that more than 6,000 American servicemen have been evacuated for medical reasons since the beginning of the war, including more than 1,500 American soldiers who have been wounded, many seriously.
The figures will shock many Americans, who believe that casualties in the war in Iraq have been relatively light. Recent polls show that support for President George Bush and his administration's policy in Iraq has been slipping.
The number of casualties will also increase pressure on Bush to share the burden of occupying Iraq with more nations. Attempts to broker an international alliance to pour more men and money into Iraq foundered yesterday when Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, brusquely rejected a French proposal as 'totally unrealistic'.
Three US soldiers were killed last week, bringing the number of combat dead since hostilities in Iraq were declared officially over on 1 May to 68. A similar number have died in accidents. It is military police policy to announce that a soldier has been wounded only if they were involved in an incident that involved a death.
Critics of the policy say it hides the true extent of the casualties. The new figures reveal that 1,178 American soldiers have been wounded in combat operations since the war began on 20 March.
It is believed many of the American casualties evacuated from Iraq are seriously injured. Modern body armour, worn by almost all American troops, means wounds that would normally kill a man are avoided. However vulnerable arms and legs are affected badly. This has boosted the proportion of maimed among the injured.
There are also concerns that many men serving in Iraq will suffer psychological trauma. Experts at the National Army Museum in London said studies of soldiers in the First and Second World Wars showed that it was prolonged exposure to combat environments that was most damaging. Some American units, such as the Fourth Infantry Division, have been involved in frontline operations for more than six months.
Andrew Robertshaw, an expert at the museum, said wars also claimed casualties after they were over.
'Soldiers were dying from injuries sustained during World War I well into the 1920s,' he said.
British soldiers are rotated more frequently than their American counterparts. The Ministry of Defence has recently consulted the National Army Museum about psychological disorders suffered by combatants in previous wars in a bid to avoid problems.
The wounded return to the USA with little publicity.
Giant C-17 transport jets on medical evacuation missions land at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, every night.
Battlefield casualties are first treated at Army field hospitals in Iraq then sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany, where they are stabilised.
Andrews is the first stop back home. As the planes taxi to a halt, gangplanks are lowered and the wounded are carried or walk out. A fleet of ambulances and buses meet the C-17s most nights to take off the most seriously wounded. Those requiring urgent operations and amputations are ferried to America's two best military hospitals, the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, near Washington, and the National Naval Medical Centre, Bethesda.
The hospitals are busy. Sometimes all 40 of Walter Reed's intensive care beds are full.
Dealing with the aftermath of amputations and blast injuries is common. Mines, home-made bombs and rocket-propelled grenades are the weapons of choice of the Iraqi resistance fighters. They cause the sort of wounds that will cost a soldier a limb.
The less badly wounded stay overnight at the air base, where an indoor tennis club and a community centre have been turned into a medical staging facility. Many have little but the ragged uniforms on their backs. A local volunteer group, called America's Heroes of Freedom, has set up on the base to provide them with fresh clothes, food packages and toiletries. 'This is our way of saying, "We have not forgotten you,"' said group founder Susan Brewer.
Have resect for those killed by stoping the hysterical and wrongful representation of their mission.
Yep, and MacArthur should've been restrained from counterattacking the Japanese until Hitler's Nazi thugs were totally defeated. </ sarcasm>
"Sort of"? What does that mean?
Do you have any evidence other than the leftist British press to prove that?
Your glib attitude is disrespectful. Fine, no big deal, who cares, etc, etc. Sickening.
So, therefore, we should acknowledge their existence? Interesting perspective.
That's the point.
What do you think war is about anyway? Many people haven been injured and killed for our freedoms. Freedom is not free. My point is that I disagree with you. I don't think we need to discuss a liberal's attempt to discredit our president and our troops as real news or as newsworthy.
What is there to say about the death and injuires of our troops. They happen, it is horrible, that is war.
Say a prayer and give thanks, but do not give power to our enemies by repeating their creed. Liberals will lie , steal and cheat to get power. Here they are stirring the pot and trying to play on the emotions of weak minded people in order to force us to loose another war. ( see: Vietnam war)
Out of respect for those soilders slain, I will support our troops until the job is done. Then I will do what I can to give thanks and support when they get home.
I will not be a flower petal and run from the reality of war. War is hell. Don't be hysterical and try to stand strong, will you?. Politics and discussions of war should be saved for rational people.
By who? The media or the government?
Several of us in this thread know how high the numbers of wounded are - it's not some great secret, and we didn't have to rely on having any kind of inside knowledge. If you keep up on what's going on and run the numbers through your head, it's easy to see it's over a 1000 casualties.
My personal belief (I'm repeating myself, sorry) - the media doesn't find a half dozen American soldiers getting wounded every day as "newsworthy" as other topics. They'd rather discuss the CA governor's race, or who died this week or whatever, because the same story everyday (Americans being wounded) gets old, and people get tired of it.
I don't think it's that people don't care about our wounded - I think it's just become an accepted part of the war (and it is a war, don't let anybody tell you otherwise).
The numbers that people really need to be paying attention to are how many Iraqis, Saudis, Syrians, Afghanistanis, Pakistanis, etc. we are killing and wounding everyday. No disrepect for our wounded, in fact I'm praising them - we are defeating our enemies in large numbers everyday.
That's the real story.
If by coming out in the open a bit more, then yes, that might be true. By doing so, they are dying a lot more, not sort of dying a lot more, but dying a lot more :-)
I'll tell you what there is to say, dammit. Acknowledging their existence is a start.
Your attitude is scary as hell to me.
You can not be a conservative and not get this. This is a leftist news source. This paper will slant the news to rile up emotional people ( mostly women). The goal for them is to get enough Americans upset that they call upon the governement to pull out of Iraq. Thus, losing the war and repeating Vietnam all over again ( which was abousive to our troops). The leftists and liberals do not want us to win, they do not care about the troops or their saftey. By choosing to repeat and discuss information you get from leftist sources you are damaging our troops and hurting our nation.
You say you want to discuss this topic , yet it seems to me you want to control the debate by calling names and using emotional outbursts to try and shame people. If you are going to talk about politics on a conservative forum you should not be surprise people don't agree with a liberal point of view.
OTH, Where would we be if these people did not sacrafice for us and for our children. I think it is more respectful to stand strong, support our troops and believe in their mission.
Most people know Freedom is not free. Those who don't get that now never will no matter what is on the news. In fact those are the peopel who are trying to manipulate the numbers for political gain and to hurt our President.
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