This is the reality--in fact, it's just the tip of the iceberg. 1300 American souls have been lost since we began our quest for "the liberation of Iraq." 1300 men, just like the one pictured above.
Thanks to Raed for taking the time to scan and post the above picture. As he says in his original post, it's something you can't really find all over the 'net. I'd like to add that you can't see this kind of picture anywhere.
Raed also posted this pic of wounded US GIs after receiving :
In his blog, Raed has been posting some great info regarding the dead and wounded US soldiers in Iraq. I think he feels the same way I do in that if we see what's happening to US soldiers we'll all be a little less tolerant of this war.
He goes on to rightly describe the extremely high numbers of US soldiers who have been killed or wounded and cites real news sources. For instance, 20,802 troops have been treated at Landstuhl from injuries received in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). His source for this fact? The online version of TheUSMil's very own newspaper, Stars and Stripes. Here is the exact quote from said article:
As of Tuesday, 20,802 troops have been treated at Landstuhl from injuries received in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
Raed also points us to a couple of articles--one from the LA Times and the other from Editor and Publisher. First, here's a quote from the LA Times article available at StarTribune.com:
CNN, which had been alerted to expect a major news development, reported that the long-awaited offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah had begun.
In fact, the Fallujah offensive would not kick off for another three weeks. Gilbert's carefully worded announcement was an elaborate psychological operation -- or "psy-op" -- intended to dupe insurgents in Fallujah and allow U.S. commanders to see how guerrillas would react when they believed U.S. troops were entering the city, according to several Pentagon officials.
Officials at the Pentagon and other U.S. national security agencies said the CNN incident was not just an isolated feint -- the type used throughout history by armies to deceive their enemies -- but part of a broad effort under way within the Bush administration to use information to its advantage in the war on terrorism.
Is everyone okay with this? I'm not.
More from the same article:
The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), which was opened shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, following reports that the office intended to plant false news stories in the international media. But officials say that much of OSI's mission -- using information as a tool of war -- has been assumed by other offices throughout the U.S. government.
Although most of the work remains classified, officials say that some of the ongoing efforts include having U.S. military spokesmen play a greater role in psychological operations in Iraq, as well as planting information with sources used by Arabic TV channels such as Al-Jazeera to help influence the depiction of the United States.
Meanwhile, the article from Editor and Publisher also talks about how the press has been misled by TheUSMil and refers to the 60 Minutes story blogged on by Lisa at OnLisaReinsRadar.com and myself:
As the toll of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq in November approaches record levels for one month in this war, is the press only telling part of the story?
The Pentagon's latest official count, provided on Wednesday, listed 1,230 American military killed in Iraq and another 9,300 U.S. troops wounded in action. How seriously? More than 5,000 of the wounded were too badly injured to return to duty. More than 850 troops were reported to have been wounded in action in Falluja so far.
But this only scratches the surface of the total toll.
Earlier this week, CBS’s "60 Minutes" revealed that it had received a letter from the Pentagon declaring: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq."
These include serious injuries that arise from accidents (vehicular and otherwise), trauma, and severe psychiatric problems. The number is in line with estimates offered earlier this year by United Press International, based on arrivals at the main treatment center in Landstuhl, Germany.
Some of these Landstuhl cases are not serious but according to "60 Minutes" only 20 percent of the evacuees return to their units in Iraq.
None of the non-hostile injuries are included in the casualty count, "leaving the true human cost of the war something of a mystery,†"60 Minutes" states.
The total number of casualties is about 25,000, plus the more than 1,200 killed. Since about 300,000 men and women have served in Iraq, it makes for a casualty rate of about 9%.
This isn't about letting the world tell us what to do.
This isn't about "losing" a war.
This isn't about "bringing freedom to Iraq."
This is about getting out before more people die for the chaos that is Iraq.
From LATimes.com and StarTribune.com:
Last update: December 2, 2004 at 4:59 PMInformation is critical front in war on terror
Mark Mazzetti
Los Angeles Times
Published December 3, 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On the evening of Oct. 14, a young Marine spokesman near Fallujah appeared on CNN and made a dramatic announcement.
"Troops crossed the line of departure," 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert declared, using a common military expression signaling the start of a major campaign. "It's going to be a long night."
CNN, which had been alerted to expect a major news development, reported that the long-awaited offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah had begun.
In fact, the Fallujah offensive would not kick off for another three weeks. Gilbert's carefully worded announcement was an elaborate psychological operation -- or "psy-op" -- intended to dupe insurgents in Fallujah and allow U.S. commanders to see how guerrillas would react when they believed U.S. troops were entering the city, according to several Pentagon officials.
Officials at the Pentagon and other U.S. national security agencies said the CNN incident was not just an isolated feint -- the type used throughout history by armies to deceive their enemies -- but part of a broad effort under way within the Bush administration to use information to its advantage in the war on terrorism.
The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), which was opened shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, following reports that the office intended to plant false news stories in the international media. But officials say that much of OSI's mission -- using information as a tool of war -- has been assumed by other offices throughout the U.S. government.
Although most of the work remains classified, officials say that some of the ongoing efforts include having U.S. military spokesmen play a greater role in psychological operations in Iraq, as well as planting information with sources used by Arabic TV channels such as Al-Jazeera to help influence the depiction of the United States.
Internecine tussle
Other specific examples were not known, although U.S. national security officials said an emphasis had been on influencing how foreign media cover the United States.
These efforts have set off a fight inside the Pentagon over the proper use of information in wartime. Several top officials see a danger of blurring what are supposed to be well-defined lines between the stated mission of military public affairs -- disseminating truthful, accurate information to the American public and the media -- and psychological and information operations, the use of often misleading information and propaganda to influence the outcome of a campaign or battle.
Several of those officials who oppose the use of misleading information spoke out against the practice on the condition of anonymity.
"The movement of information has gone from the public affairs world to the psychological operations world," said one senior defense official. "What's at stake is the credibility of people in uniform."
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said that he recognized the concern of many inside the Defense Department, but that "everybody understands that there's a very important distinction between information operations and public affairs. Nobody has offered serious proposals that would blur the distinction between these two functions."
Di Rita said he had asked his staff for more information about how the Oct. 14 incident on CNN came about.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, distributed a letter Sept. 27 to the Joint Chiefs and U.S. combatant commanders in the field warning of the dangers of having military public affairs (PA) too closely aligned with information operations (IO).
Credibility
"Although both PA and IO conduct planning, message development and media analysis, the efforts differ with respect to audience, scope and intent, and must remain separate," according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Times.
Pentagon officials say Myers is worried that U.S. efforts in Iraq and in the broader campaign against terrorism could suffer if world audiences begin to question the honesty of statements from U.S. commanders and spokespeople.
Yet advocates of these programs said that the advent of a 24-hour news cycle and the powerful influence of Arabic satellite television made it essential that U.S. military commanders and civilian officials make the control of information a key part of their battle plans.
"Information is part of the battlefield in a way that it's never been before," one senior Bush administration official said. "We'd be foolish not to try to use it to our advantage."
© Copyright 2004 Star Tribune
Press Routinely Undercounts U.S. Casualties in Iraq
By E&P Staff
Published: November 25, 2004 7:00 PM ET
NEW YORK As the toll of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq in November approaches record levels for one month in this war, is the press only telling part of the story?
The Pentagon's latest official count, provided on Wednesday, listed 1,230 American military killed in Iraq and another 9,300 U.S. troops wounded in action. How seriously? More than 5,000 of the wounded were too badly injured to return to duty. More than 850 troops were reported to have been wounded in action in Falluja so far.
But this only scratches the surface of the total toll.
Earlier this week, CBS’s "60 Minutes" revealed that it had received a letter from the Pentagon declaring: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq."
These include serious injuries that arise from accidents (vehicular and otherwise), trauma, and severe psychiatric problems. The number is in line with estimates offered earlier this year by United Press International, based on arrivals at the main treatment center in Landstuhl, Germany.
Some of these Landstuhl cases are not serious but according to "60 Minutes" only 20 percent of the evacuees return to their units in Iraq.
None of the non-hostile injuries are included in the casualty count, "leaving the true human cost of the war something of a mystery,†"60 Minutes" states.
The total number of casualties is about 25,000, plus the more than 1,200 killed. Since about 300,000 men and women have served in Iraq, it makes for a casualty rate of about 9%.
© 2004 VNU eMedia Inc
Veterans Affairs chief vows to work for the wounded
By Ben Murray, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, November 24, 2004
LANDSTUHL, Germany — Emerging from a meeting with injured troops at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ top official vowed Monday to work for the timely delivery of benefits to America’s “wounded heroes.â€
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi spent more than an hour meeting with about 20 troops at the hospital in a brief stop on his way to Thanksgiving in Afghanistan.
Afterward, he spoke about the need to take care of soldiers wounded in the war on terrorism. Principi said he was heartened by the morale of the troops recovering at Landstuhl, and would work “to make sure that the VA takes care of them†when they separate from the military.
But the VA faces a massive task in trying to quickly funnel health benefits to troops recently wounded or disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a letter to The Washington Post last month, Principi said his office receives more than 60,000 new benefits claims each month, and at any given time has more than 250,000 claims being processed.
The government’s second-largest agency also has come under fire for the amount of time it takes to process claims.
Working through the complicated separation and claims process can take months for separating troops, prompting the VA to expand its services in 2001 and begin its “seamless transition†initiative last year to streamline the VA processing procedure.
That initiative included efforts to improve communication between the VA and the Department of Defense, the addition of extra benefits counselors and internal VA moves to ensure that troops wounded in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom receive priority care.
“They’ve earned those benefits, and I want to ensure they get them,†Principi said.
The VA’s 2001 expansion of services has made a big difference to troops passing through the Landstuhl hospital, according to Jerl York, officer in charge for the seven-member VA staff at Landstuhl.
As of Tuesday, 20,802 troops have been treated at Landstuhl from injuries received in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
York said that the predischarge program available at Landstuhl allows separating troops to work through the claims process while still in Germany, allowing them to circumvent most of the ponderous VA central claims system, based in Washington, D.C.
“In the States, processing can take up to a year,†York said. But working through the Landstuhl program allows separating troops to receive benefits in as little as 60 to 100 days, he said.
“We can essentially write the award and the benefit starts flowing then,†he said.
© 2003 Stars and Stripes
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