34 Dead as Baghdad Bombers Hit Red Cross, Police

[Bereta_Eder]

US military casualties from the occupation of Iraq have been more than twice the number most Americans have been led to believe because of an extraordinarily high number of accidents, suicides and other non-combat deaths in the ranks that have gone largely unreported in the media.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1011691,00.html

[Bereta_Eder]

Of course there are more fresh news which talk about much more suicides.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by skywalker

So you think it's funny that US troops are under such pressure they're committing suicide...?

[Kuciwalker]

No, I think it is funny that he would suggest that it is happening.

IIRC, you are the one who was hoping lots of US soldiers died, to hurt Bush.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by paiktis22


http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...011691,00.html

The Guardian is an activist paper. Not a credible source.

[MOBIUS]

Right, well after that latest shocking show of ignorance I think I had better post that article on the forum - that way some people here may actually get educated if they accidentally catch some of the following words on their monitors...

The unreported cost of war: at least 827 American wounded

Julian Borger, Washington
Monday August 4, 2003
The Guardian

US military casualties from the occupation of Iraq have been more than twice the number most Americans have been led to believe because of an extraordinarily high number of accidents, suicides and other non-combat deaths in the ranks that have gone largely unreported in the media.
Since May 1, when President George Bush declared the end of major combat operations, 52 American soldiers have been killed by hostile fire, according to Pentagon figures quoted in almost all the war coverage. But the total number of US deaths from all causes is much higher: 112.

The other unreported cost of the war for the US is the number of American wounded, 827 since Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

Unofficial figures are in the thousands. About half have been injured since the president's triumphant appearance on board the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln at the beginning of May. Many of the wounded have lost limbs.

The figures are politically sensitive. The number of American combat deaths since the start of the war is 166 - 19 more than the death toll in the first Gulf war.

The passing of that benchmark last month erased the perception, popular at the time Baghdad fell, that the US had scored an easy victory.

According to a Gallup poll, 63% of Americans still think Iraq was worth going to war over, but a quarter want the troops out now, and another third want a withdrawal if the casualty figures continue to mount.

In fact, the total death toll this time is 248 - including accidents and suicides - and as the number of non-combat deaths and serious injuries becomes more widely known, the erosion of public confidence is likely to continue, posing a threat to Mr Bush's prospects of re-election, which at the beginning of May had seemed a foregone conclusion.

Military observers say it is unusual, even in a "low-intensity" guerrilla war such as the situation seen in Iraq, for non-combat deaths to outnumber combat casualties.

The Pentagon does not tabulate the cause of those deaths, but according to an American website that has been tracking official reports, Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, 23 American soldiers have died in car or helicopter accidents since May 1, while 12 have been killed in accidents with weapons or explosives.

Three deaths have been categorised as "possible suicides", three have died from illness, and three from drowning. The rest are unexplained.

Wounded American soldiers continue to be flown back to the US at a relentless rate, in twice-weekly transport flights to Andrews air force base near Washington.

Hospital staff are working 70- or 80-hour weeks, and the Walter Reed army hospital in Washington is so full that it has taken over beds normally reserved for cancer patients to handle the influx, according to a report on CBS television.

Meanwhile, at the nearby national naval medical centre in Bethesda, new marine injuries are delivered almost daily by a medical plane known as the Nightingale.

The Pentagon figure for "wounded in action" in Iraq is 827, but here again the total number of injuries appears to be much higher.

The estimate given by central command in Qatar is 926, but according to Lieutenant-Colonel Allen DeLane, who is in charge of the airlift of the wounded into Andrews air base, that too is understated.

"Since the war has started, I can't give you an exact number because that's classified information, but I can say to you over 4,000 have stayed here at Andrews, and that number doubles when you count the people that come here to Andrews and then we send them to other places like Walter Reed and Bethesda, which are in this area also," Col DeLane told National Public Radio.

He said 90% of injuries were directly war-related.

Some of that number may involve double-counting - if a soldier stays at the Andrews clinic on the way to Washington and then again on the way back to the war or back home, for example. But the actual number of wounded still appears to be much higher than the official figures.

"When the facility where I'm at started absorbing the people coming back from theatre [in April], those numbers went up significantly - I'd say over 1,200," Col DeLane said.

"That number even went up higher in the month of May, to about 1,500, and continues to increase."

Of course, someone really bright like Slowwhand will note that this article was posted in a 'leftie' newspaper and immediately denounce it as a journalistic figment of imagination - at least I tried...

More combat deaths than GWI, total death toll of 248 and thousands injured...

Nice work Bush...

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by skywalker
The Guardian is an activist paper. Not a credible source.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

You beat me to it!

Not a credible source - you really don't have a f*cking clue what you're talking about - do you?

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by skywalker
No, I think it is funny that he would suggest that it is happening.

It is happening - therefore it is notfunny...

Sheesh!

IIRC, you are the one who was hoping lots of US soldiers died, to hurt Bush.

Actually no. In the most part the US soldiers that die are innocent parties that happen to be in the line of fine because Bush decided to go on a crusade under false pretences!

So you are utterly wrong.

Of course if Wolfowitz had got his comeuppance the other day, then that would have been entirely deserved IMO as he was one of the architects of this unholy clusterf*ck!

[Chemical Ollie]

A first-hand report by a Swedish reporter said that the American company he had mostly been following had suffered 10 % casualties, mostly in wounded but also some KIA over their occupation deployment so far. I don't know if those casualty rates are representative for all occupation units or if the average is lower, but it seems pretty bad numbers.

[MrFun]

I just want to be sure people understand -- just because some of us oppose the policies of the Bush administration, does not mean we loved Saddam Insane, nor do we wish more casualties so we can masturbate over another "Vietnam" crisis to prove our point.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by skywalker
IIRC, you are the one who was hoping lots of US soldiers died, to hurt Bush.

It was Comrade Tribune

[Whaleboy]

Peace and love is good. War is not.

[MichaeltheGreat]

What's a "Republican," infidel?

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


That's the Republican strategy.

Nope. See one thing most people from the US miss is that it's not just about US. There's a certain kind of ******* out there to whom we are, in theory and in practice, sending a message. They aren't interested in the nuances of American politics and don't really care why we suddenly lose a bunch of vertebra and a couple of balls. Even if they did care, do you think they're going to report "honestly" to their semiliterate followers over whom they exercise information control?

No, they're just going to report that the weak kneed zionist-loving crusader infidels have been defeated and are running away, so now is the time to strike even harder for the glory of Allah.

These people wouldn't give a flying **** if you got Angela Davis elected and said "ok, we'll be nice now, we're sorry we offended you." Bush declared the goal, like it or not, and the people we have to convince aren't the American people, or a bunch of European pussies, but the dedicated *******s who want to kill us.

Bush's mouth wrote a check his ass can't cash, so now it's a lot of mostly E3's to E6's whose asses are cashing that check. Don't like it? Too bad, I don't either, but the cost of failure is one hell of a lot bigger than who wins the next round of US elections.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
Peace and love is good. War is not.

That's a truly profound insight. Unfortunately, a war is what we've got.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
Of course if Wolfowitz had got his comeuppance the other day, then that would have been entirely deserved IMO as he was one of the architects of this unholy clusterf*ck!

It's not a cluster**** yet. We only have one or two ****ups going at any given time, we're not near the density of ****ups it takes to make a cluster****.