| IRAQ WAR - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
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False Casualty Figures |
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by Kevin More The Truth Seeker Entered into the database on Wednesday, June 08th, 2005 @ 14:58:46 MST |
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From the Pentagon as of January 14th 2005,figures have been released at some 1361
U.S personnel killed and just over 10,000 wounded from the Iraq war and occupation.
Is this a true reflection of the actual casualties or a manipulation of the figures
? The Iraq war from its inception was domestically and internationally unpopular
especially as it went specifically against the will of the United Nations regarding
pre-emptive war on the grounds of so called WMDs. The first casualty of war is
always the truth. The war itself was instigated by the Neoconservatives in the
U.S and it is they who control the Pentagon and military administration, Mr Rumsfield
and Mr Wolfowitz themselves have control of the information flow out of Iraq,
that will be inclusive of casualty figures released by Centcom. Is it in their
interest to manipulate casualty flows ? In my opinion, most definitely, purely
on the reasons that the higher the casualties the greater the resolve of Americas
domestic population, starting to not only question the Iraq invasion but also
the occupation and the reasons why America is still in Iraq, a hardening of public
opinion against occupation and grounds to call the troops home. The greater the
casualties the louder the voices will become to withdraw. This will in effect
foreclose on the PNAC doctrine of pre-emptive wars around the world, which is
the Neocons dream. Much is at stake for them. The true casualty figures will only
be known by those at the Pentagon and a few selected personnel. Gauging previous
articles and statements made from various individuals and organizations since
March 2003,casualty figures can be pieced together to give a truer reflection
on what the real cost in servicemen’s lives are. In November 2003 a Surgeon at the Ramstein medical base in Germany stated that
it had received 9,500 casualties from Iraq needing surgery including over 3000
amputations. In the same month a chief administrator at Baghdad airport stated
that it had shipped out around 22,000 injured servicemen and women. In April
2004 the Veterans association stated that it had received 26,633 disability
claims from servicemen returning from Iraq. Two months later on the McLaughlin
political show aired by CNN, discussion was on a casualty figure centred around
27,000.That in its own confirms the other statistics given above. From various
blogs and articles from surgeons, doctors and medical staff, it seems they were
dealing with around 50 casualties a day, somewhere in the region of 1,500 a
month. Now here is where I have to start speculating and piece the information
together as Sherlock Holmes would do .Since April 2004 Najaf exploded in violence
twice and the same can be said for Fallujah each incident taking approximately
a month to contain. Both Najaf and Fallujah caused extensive resistance not
only too those areas but extended out to other areas in Iraq, so that from that,
there would be an increase in casualties, I would put it at double the average,
around 3,000 each for these 4 months totaling 12,000 casualties. From April
2004 to today January 2005 is ten months, using the template average of 1,500
casualties per month is 15,000 and adding a further 1,500 casualties per month
for those four explosive months in Najaf and Fallujah gives a further 6,000.
Therefore that leaves a total of 21,000 casualties from April 2004 to date,
add that to the Veterans association figures of 26,633 casualties pre April
2004 giving a total of 48,000 casualties. Using a rough guide of 1 soldier killed
for every 8 wounded gives a figure of 6,000 killed. In my opinion the true casualty figures of Iraq is around 6,000 servicemen
killed and 48,000 wounded. Totaling 54,000.If my figures are accurate then the
pentagon is only reporting, making public 20% of the casualties. Many people
will state this cannot be possible. They cannot hide that amount. Vietnam was
a good reflection initially 6,000 Kia were reported later that rose to 58,000
and later a further 40,000 were deemed missing in action .So if Vietnam is anything
to judge, then most certainly casualty figures are manipulated for public consumption
NOTE As the above report suggests, it is more than likely that US casualty figures
are being manipulated. So as to minimise the negative impact on public opinion
only the barest minimum are being reported. This has been further substantiated
by reports and photographs of mass graves in Iraq, containing the bodies of
U.S. servicemen. This cover-up has been further assisted by the fact that more
than 30,000 US service personnel are not US citizens, but are actually serving
in the US military in order to obtain US citizenship. That being the case with
these so-called ‘Green Card Soldiers’, the US military authorities
are under no obligation to publicly acknowledge their deaths. Indeed, concealing
the real US casualty figures has now become something of a US military tradition,
as the following article reveals. Ed. U.S. Suffered Over 20,000 More Military Dead During Vietnam War Than Previously
Reported By Ted Sampley – U.S. Veteran Dispatch, September 1998 The U.S. Veteran Dispatch has uncovered Pentagon records revealing that the
United States suffered nearly 20,000 more fatalities during the Vietnam War
era than the 58,182 servicemen whose names are engraved on the National Vietnam
Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. According to a U.S. Army file called TAGCEN which contains over 293,000 Army
casualty records, there are 19,644 U.S. Army servicemen who were killed or died
between January 1, 1965 and December 31, 1975 that are not counted as Vietnam
war dead because their death certificates were written in other countries, including
the United States. There are two versions of TAGCEN, one for public use and one for internal government
use. To verify the information presented in this article, U.S. Army casualty records
were cross-referenced between the Pentagon's Combat Area Casualties Current
File (CACCF) and the TAGCEN file dating between the years 1965 and 1975. There is a difference between the files of approximately 500 Vietnam service
records, which means the 19,644 number could be 500 higher. The CACCF file contains 58,200 plus records of men from all services who are
listed as died in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Those names are chiseled
into the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. and the
CACCF file is available to the public. Of the total names in the CACCF file, 37,942 are of Army killed or missing
during the time frame January 1, 1965 to December 31, 1975 and are listed on
The Wall. When the 37,942 is subtracted from the 57,586 Army dead or missing the Pentagon
has recorded in TAGCEN for 1965 to 1975, there is a difference of 19,644 Army
dead. Casualty records and files which record the Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy and
Coast Guard killed and wounded outside of the Vietnam War zone during the 1965-75
time frame remain unavailable. The number of servicemen from those branches
whose deaths were recorded in other countries is believed to be significantly
high. If casualty files for those branches were made public and added to the Army
casualties, it is estimated that the number of fatalities could be as high as
30,000 more than the Vietnam-era dead claimed by the Pentagon. It has long been known that servicemen who died outside Vietnam as a result
of wounds they received in Southeast Asia were not counted as Vietnam war dead,
but the exact number of those casualties has never been made public. Even if a number of the fatalities are not related to the Vietnam combat area,
there is no way the United States lost 30,000 servicemen from 1965 to 1975 because
of accidents, crime, health problems, etc. From January 1965 until December 1975, Pentagon records show 57,586 U.S. Army
servicemen died in the following countries: North Vietnam — 11 In June, to help further explore these findings, the U.S. Veteran Dispatch
posted the casualty figures on several internet newsgroups which deal with the
Vietnam War. There were a number of responses, some which challenged the validity
of our sources and some which offered more information. The list below is an example of the Army casualties by year in South Vietnam
and the United States. Note as the number of Army personnel killed in South Vietnam began to climb
in 1965, the Army dead in the United States increased correspondingly until
1971 when more soldiers died in the United States than in Vietnam. Even though by 1973 the U.S. was backing out of the Vietnam War and U.S. casualties
in Vietnam had dropped significantly, Army soldiers continued to die back home
in the States. 1965 South Vietnam - 1,080 1966 South Vietnam - 3,770 1967 South Vietnam - 6,470 1968 South Vietnam - 10,595 1969 South Vietnam - 8,192 1970 South Vietnam - 4,643 1971 South Vietnam - 2,066 1972 South Vietnam - 362 1973 South Vietnam - 26 1974 South Vietnam - 40 1975 South Vietnam - 13 Also see: First US Soldier Killed in Iraq Not an American |
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