Dear Everyone;
Please note these figures - especially those of you who supported the "intervention " in Iraq and Afghanistan to save the people of Iraq from Saddam and the people of Afghanistan from the Taliban - and remember - to get Osama bin Laden - you do remeber Osama bin Laden - right?
From January 2005 to November, the military evacuated nearly 15,000 troops -- 23 percent for battle injuries - which is 3,450. Totally the number of casualties from the start of the War on Iraq - some 23,000.
This web site can give you all the figures - kept fairly up to date by volunteer civilians - using press reports and Pentagon figures. Statistaically speaking it's pretty darn accurate.
http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx
The internal Pentagon briefing comes as the U.S. military suffered 115 combat deaths in December, the most since November 2004 and the third deadliest month since the March 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. Total U.S. deaths yesterday stood at 3,005 for Iraq and 357 for Afghanistan.
The number of wounded has reached more than 23,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan. This includes 759 amputees: 497 who lost a leg, arm, hand or foot; and 262 who lost a finger, toe, or part of a hand or foot, the Pentagon says.
One very important figure not included - the number of soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury from IED's - this is about the same as major amputee victims or some 500. This has been from brain concussion from the explosions to literally bolts being driven into someones skull and everything else in between.
These soldiers mostly in their 20's - will face a life time of care - but after Bush is gone and 10 years from now - who will care? The Veterans Administration? Bush - Cheney - Rice - Rumsfield? The average US citizen who was saved from "terrorists" by the soldiers sacrifice? Unh Hunh.
From the number of evacuated wounded - about half have had to ultimately be medically discharged from the military - for you lap-top warriors try doing the math on those figures.
Quotable
It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.
– General William Tecumseh Sherman
The simple fact is no "surge" is called for - what's needed is an immediate pull out from both Iraq and Afghanistan leaving behind nothing but boot prints and tire tracks - and no bases.
Get the soldiers out and bring them home today - literally - it's called "bug out".
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian