War Casualties

Jason writes:

Since you are leading the charge in the Iraq/Afganistan editorializing:

Iraq only:

13,189 wounded
1,828 dead
That is a 13.8% fatality rate, roughly. The figure is up from 10% last year as attacks grow more deadly. But that’s not the story. Vietnam had fewer casualties in it’s first 4 years (61-65) at 10,000. And Vietnam’s fatality rate was 24%. Increased medical technology and body armor has allowed more soilders to survive severe attacks. These soilders are not being patched up and shipped home, they are not recieving “million dollar wounds.” Because the typical attack involves blast munitions, soilders are badly mutiliated, save the torso, and will require a lifetime of medical care. Blinding injuries are abnormally high. However, the public is more interested in fatality figures, this is not being reported. If this trend continues, and if the Bush administration continues to resist adequate responsibility for this war of arrogance and hubris, these statistics will come to the public’s attention too late.
Total for Vietnam 1961-73: 200,727 wounded, 47,424 dead
Source; New England Journal of Medicine, December 2004, US dept. of defense online, and icacasualties.org

What Jason says is true, but, as my cartoon coming out Monday riffs upon, the actual number of Iraq war dead, according to internal Pentagon documents, is more than 9,000. Why the discrepancy? Apparently you’re only counted as “killed in action” if your heart stops beating in Iraq. If you are wounded by an IED and die en route to an army hospital in Germany–even if you die during takeoff from Baghdad airport–you’re not counted among the 1,828.