US Iraq Casualties Rise to 68,474

US Iraq casualties rise to 68,474
Compiled by Michael Munk

US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered 36 combat casualties casualties in the week ending October 21, 2008 as the official casualty total climbed to at least 68,474. It includes 34,144 dead and wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 34,330 dead and medically evacuated (as of August 2) from "non-hostile" causes.*

The actual total is over 88,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 20,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions--were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq..**

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by occasionally reporting only the total killed (4,188 as of Oct. 21) but rarely mentioning the 30,757 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 33,529 (as of Aug. 2, 2008)*** military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation, although the 4,188 reported deaths include 801 (up one last week) who died from those same causes, including at least 13 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 145 suicides (suicides last updated March 1).

###

* The number of wounded is updated weekly (usually Tuesdays) by the
Pentagon at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf.

** see USA Today, Nov. 23, 2007

*** the number of "non combat" injured was reported by the AP:
http://sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-by-the-n...

Visit my website: www.michaelmunk.com