More than 72,043 battlefield casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan

Posted on: January 23, 2008 - 9:45am by Aaron Glantz

The Pentagon officially reported 72,043 battlefield casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan through Jan. 5, 2008. In addition, VA hospitals and clinics have treated 263,909 unplanned patients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. On top of that, VA reported 245,034 disability claims from veterans of the two wars. Those are some of the disturbing new statistics released by the group Veterans for Common Sense, which gathered that data through use of the Freedom of Information Act (typical of the rest of its secrecy, the Bush Administration doesn't just release this information to the public as a matter of course). Flag Draped Coffin

That concealment is the latest example of the Bush Administration's downplaying of the true cost of the Iraq War. Remember, the President initially refused to make public photos of fallen soldiers returning home in flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base.

January 25, 2008 - 7:03am — MEC (not verified)

What accounts for the discrepancy between the "battlefield casualties" and the "unplanned patients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars"?

Are there really twice as many "nonbattlefield" injuries and ailments among our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as battlefield injuries?

Is the Pentagon underreporting the battlefield injuries -- perhaps underreporting the battles?

How many of the "unplanned patients" came home physically uninjured but suffering from psychological trauma?

Whatever the explanation for the discrepancy, it's plain that the cost of Bush's War is much higher than the Pentagon admits.

January 24, 2008 - 9:41pm — David (not verified)

I ain't a gona study war no more
I will beat my swords into plough shears

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