Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Iraq clusterfuck: Casualty figures 17 times too low?
Granted, it all depends on what the meaning of "casualty" is. Still:
17,000?! Makes the strain the army is experiencing a little more comprehensible, eh?
Nearly 17,000 service members medically evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan are absent from public Pentagon casualty reports commonly cited by newspapers, according to military data reviewed by United Press International. Most don't fit the definition of casualties, according to the Pentagon, but a veterans' advocate said they should all be counted.
The Pentagon has reported 1,019 dead and 7,245 wounded from Iraq.
The military has evacuated 16,765 individual service members from Iraq and Afghanistan for injuries and ailments not directly related to combat, according to the U.S. Transportation Command, which is responsible for the medical evacuations. Most are from Operation Iraqi Freedom.
(via UPI)
17,000?! Makes the strain the army is experiencing a little more comprehensible, eh?