Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or more US casualties in Iraq War

[Echo In Light]

Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or more US casualties in Iraq War
By Mike Whitney

11/17/07 "ICH" -- The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.

CBS’s Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed--that between 1995 and 2007--there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.

Baloney.

The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256 AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT’S 120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR.”

That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that "multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.

If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.

That’s right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and women in a war that--as yet--has no legal or moral justification.

More:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18737.htm

[Dhalgren]

1. Jesus, if this is true, our military is way passed fucked...

[cali]

2. Let me explain why this isn't accurate and doesn't help

The author is conflating statistics. That's evident right here:

"The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “THERE WERE AT LEAST 6,256 AMONG THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. THAT’S 120 EACH AND EVERY WEEK IN JUST ONE YEAR"

Yes, 6,256 veterans- from ALL veterans of the Armed Service- committed suicide. That is not the same as 6,256 veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars committing suicide, and yet the the author applies that figure to the death toll from the Iraq and Afghan wars.

Just as bad, he claims that CBS is saying something it clearly isn't saying.

Whitney also says:

That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that "multiple-tours of duty" in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.


Yet, he doesn't provide any evidence to back up his vague "mostly".

The sad thing is that blatantly false articles like this discredit the very real points the author is presumably trying to make- that the death toll from Iraq is higher than the official figures, that the Iraq and Afghan wars have had a devastating effect on the mental health of those fighting it, and that there is a likely increase in suicides among those who have served there.

[Igel]

3. The CBS report seems to assume

that the suicide rate among veterans that haven't served in Iraq--in fact, of all veterans--is magically 0%.

Just as we have to subtract something like the number of non-hostile deaths per year in the military, normalized for the number of people actually serving, before the non-hostile death toll from Iraq is meaningful and says something about Iraq, so we also have to remove the number of expected suicides from the total count before we get a suicide rate that says something about Iraq. The number should also be adjusted for sex, age, and ethnicity; if suicide.org is correct, not only is the obvious difference in male/female suicide rates pertinent, but also differences by age cohort and ethnicity.

In other words: It's the differential, not the absolute number, that is important.

Of course, that assumes that CBS has good numbers. Until they're actually examined and shown to be fact-based, they're a claim. We dismiss academics' claims when they're relevant to the "other" side of a partisan argument and haven't been subject to independent review, and I think critical thinking is apolitical and non-partisan. I didn't watch the show, and if there was independent review of CBS's sources and confirmation that the methodology and sources used were solid, or the conclusions entailed, I'd like to know.

[cali]

4. Why do you say that?

As I see it, it's the author of this piece that makes that assumption,not CBS.