Rose: The cost of 'success'

[Barrett808]

The American public has been given minimal information and thus has little appreciation of the real human cost of Bush's Iraq War.

It's almost as if the major media were complicit in minimizing the pain and suffering of those fighting this battle. They provide an account of U.S. military killed, but the dead are only a part of the story. What about the wounded, those maimed and shattered in body and spirit?

Since Bush reported "mission accomplished" through Oct. 22, the Pentagon reports 1,059 U.S. wounded. The U.S. Central Command, according to the Wall Street Journal, reports a higher figure: 1,186 "non-lethal casualties from hostile action." An independent source (lunaville.org) that tracks all coalition casualties lists an even higher figure: a total of 352 dead and 2,096 wounded.

Revenge is one of the reasons why Iraqis continue to attack their "liberators." Over 18,000 of their husbands, wives, fathers, mothers and children have been killed and thousands more wounded by U.S. and coalition forces.

Whatever the statistics, the Wall Street Journal writes: "Attacks on American soldiers have become so frequent that medical personnel have to deal with the biggest influx of military casualties since the Vietnam War. The Iraqi campaign has been producing far more fatalities and non-lethal casualties than the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the Balkans action in 1999 and the war in Afghanistan since 2001."

Quoting a nurse serving in a combat support hospital: "It's like a horror movie," she said. "I served in a trauma unit. I saw death in the face - but nothing like here. And those who live, you've got to wonder how they are going to make it back in the States."

...

Forget the dead and wounded. This war is all about money. Money for Haliburton and Bechtel. Cash flowing into the defense industry.

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http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/110703/LOCrose.shtml