REPUBLICANS COVERING UP 28,859 U.S.WOUNDED IN IRAQ!! (Must Read)

[Dems Will Win]

Instead of always blaming Bush for everything we have to start blaming the "Republicans" for everything. Remember Bush is not running again. So the Republicans, who enabled Bush by providing ABSOLUTELY NO OVERSIGHT OF OUR VETERANS CAUSED THIS!

THE REPUBLICANS WERE TOO BUSY TAKING BRIBES AND PROSTITUTES FROM ABRAMOFF, WILKES, WADE AND ALL THE REST TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE VETERANS AND EVEN ALLOWED THE COVERING UP OF 28,859 U.S. WOUNDED IN IRAQ!

Yet the story of the US wounded reveals yet another deception by the Bush administration, masking monumental miscalculations that will haunt generations to come. Thanks to the work of a Harvard professor and former Clinton administration economist named Linda Bilmes, and some other hard-working academics, we have discovered that the administration has been putting out two entirely separate and conflicting sets of numbers of those wounded in the wars...

...Let me pause to explain those deceptive figures. Look at the latest official toll of US fatalities and wounded in the media, and you will see something like 3,160 dead and 23,785 wounded (that "includes 13,250 personnel who returned to duty within 72 hours", the Washington Post told us helpfully on 4 March). From this, you might assume that only 11,000 or so troops, in effect, have been wounded in Iraq. But Bilmes discovered that the Bush administration was keeping two separate sets of statistics of those wounded: one (like the above) issued by the Pentagon and therefore used by the media, and the other by the Department of Veterans Affairs - a government department autonomous from the Pentagon. At the beginning of this year, the Pentagon was putting out a figure of roughly 23,000 wounded, but the VA was quietly saying that more than 50,000 had, in fact, been wounded.

What Bilmes had discovered was that the tally of US fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan included the outcome of "non-hostile actions", most commonly vehicle accidents. But the Pentagon's statistics of the wounded did not. Even troops incapacitated for life in Iraq or Afghanistan - but not in "hostile situations" - were not being counted, although they will require exactly the same kind of medical care back home as soldiers similarly wounded in battle.

Macabee at DailyKOS: Bilmes discovered that on 10 January the number of wounded listed on at the Veterans Administration dropped from 50,508 to 21,649. Bilmes says it’s tin-foil hat time. The outrageous lies they tell, the information they manipulate happens all under the radar, and completely unreported by a compliant and worthless mainstram press.



http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/12/18949/0652

PLEASE REMEMBER TO RECOMMEND

[w4rma]

1. In full and total agreement. (nt)

[Dems Will Win]

2. This really makes me mad

[CrazyOrangeCat]

3. k&r

expose the lying scum.

[porphyrian]

4. I'll kick that. - n/t

[Dems Will Win]

11. Help me keep this kicked!

[porphyrian]

13. OK, here's another. - n/t

[porphyrian]

15. ...and one for the afternoon crowd. - n/t

[Dems Will Win]

17. Thanks, I was away

[tom_paine]

5. Of course they are. ALL Totalitarians do.

[peacetalksforall]

6. Blamin the Republicans is a very good point. We can't get lost in

the numbers as they will keep chaning. We need to find out how the deception was planted so we can end it. The truth hurts. Lose an eye, but you're not counted because it was a road accident or a something blowing up while being moved with no insurgents around? Let's face it - our kids were not welcomed, as promised.

[K8-EEE]

7. There's ONLY ONE reason the Repukes don't want "finger pointing"

It's cuz they know the finger should rightly be pointed at THEM!

[Bjorn Against]

18. Yeah, they don't seem to have a problem with finger pointing when...

the finger is pointed at Democrats, but all of a sudden when they know they can not get by with blaming others well then all of a sudden finger pointing is wrong.

[enough]

8. Saw a bumper sticker at our local pizza sports bar tonight:

"Honor the Dead. Heal the Wounded. End the War." This is a very a apolitical establishment.

These outrages about the treatment of the wounded seem to resonate even with those who don't usually follow politics.

[bananarepublican]

9. If only Abramoff had provided republics hookers 24-7. They wouldn't have had as much time...

... to fuck up the country.

[liberalla]

10. Thank you Linda Bilmes!

I've long suspected that the numbers are phony. Here's a recent article she wrote.

The Battle of Iraq's Wounded
The U.S. is poorly equipped to care for the tens of thousands of soldiers injured in Iraq.

by Linda Bilmes

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0105-29.htm

[mandyky]

12. The wounded troops is not the only number

that should be questioned regarding the GOP. I have said all along I do not believe any information that this administration puts out on anything - the economy, cost of the wars, employment stats, etc.
We at DU remember when Hamburger flippers at MacDonalds were considered construction workers because they were "building" sandwiches.

K & R

[donkeyotay]

14. Republicans did this. Republican who were more loyal to their party

than their country. So loyal, they didn't notice it was operating more like a crime family than a political organization. The GOP has screwed this country over.

[ray of light]

16. thanks

[Dems Will Win]

19. You're Welcome

[Jcrowley]

20. Bump

n/t

[Dems Will Win]

21. Bumpety-bump!