>http://www.freepress.net/news/4572 > > > Press reports on U.S. casualties: about 17,000 short, UPI says > > From Editor & Publisher > <http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000630846>, > > September 15, 2004 >By Mark Benjamin > >Nearly 17,000 service members medically evacuated from Iraq and >Afghanistan are absent from public Pentagon casualty reports commonly >cited by newspapers, according to military data reviewed by United Press >International. Most don't fit the definition of casualties, according to >the Pentagon, but a veterans' advocate said they should all be counted. > >The Pentagon has reported 1,019 dead and 7,245 wounded from Iraq. > >The military has evacuated 16,765 individual service members from Iraq and >Afghanistan for injuries and ailments not directly related to combat, >according to the U.S. Transportation Command, which is responsible for the >medical evacuations. Most are from Operation Iraqi Freedom. > >The Pentagon's public casualty reports, available at www.defenselink.mil, >list only service members who died or were wounded in action. The >Pentagon's own definition of a war casualty provided to UPI in December >describes a casualty as, "Any person who is lost to the organization by >having been declared dead, duty status/whereabouts unknown, missing, ill, >or injured." > >The casualty reports do list soldiers who died in non-combat-related >incidents or died from illness. But service members injured or ailing from >the same non-combat causes (the majority that appear to be "lost to the >organization")are not reflected in those Pentagon reports. > >In a statement Wednesday, the Pentagon gave a different definition that >included casualty descriptions by severity and type and said most medical >evacuations did not count. "The great majority of service members >medically evacuated from Operation Iraqi Freedom are not casualties, by >either Department of Defense definitions or the common understanding of >the average newspaper reader." > >It cited such ailments as "muscle strain, back pain, kidney stones, >diarrhea and persistent fever" as non-casualty evacuations. "Casualty >reports released to the public are generally confined to fatalities and >those wounded in action," the statement said. > >A veterans' advocate said the Pentagon should make a full reporting of the >casualties, including non-combat ailments and injuries. "They are still >casualties of war," said Mike Schlee, director of the National Security >and Foreign Relations Division at the American Legion. "I think we have to >have an honest disclosure of what the short- and long-term casualties of >any conflict are." > >A spokesman for the transportation command said that without orders from >U.S. Central Command, his unit would not separate the medical evacuation >data to show how many came from Iraq and Afghanistan. "We stay in our >lane," said Lt. Col. Scott Ross. But most are clearly from Operation Iraqi >Freedom where several times as many troops are deployed as in Afghanistan. > >Among veterans from Iraq seeking help from the VA, 5,375 have been >diagnosed with a mental problem, making it the third-leading diagnosis >after bone problems and digestive problems. Among the mental problems were >800 soldiers who became psychotic. > >A military study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July >showed that 16 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq might suffer major >depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Around >11 percent of soldiers returning from Afghanistan may have the same >problems, according to that study.
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