Lying about US death count

The homecoming this past week of Army Private Jessica Lynch was of course poignant and worthy of celebration.

Not only did this obviously gentle young woman have the courage to go to war when called, but she showed a brand of courage that might be considered even more praiseworthy at her tender age. She showed the world her moral courage. Young Private Lynch had the guts to admit that her injuries were not inflicted by enemy weapons, as was originally reported by an overeager press and lying Pentagon, but were in fact the result of a vehicle collision between two American Humvees. Her insistence on accuracy was a gesture of respect for her fallen comrades.

Mechanized warfare is dangerous to living things. Most of us are somewhat aware of that. When we go there we go at our greatest peril. When we send our children there, we must accept - as they themselves do -that many will never return. Those who do, will come home bearing the scars and the medals of their sacrifice.

Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. The Bronze Star is recognition for heroism or meritorious achievement in ground combat. The Purple Heart is awarded to those wounded in action.

This begs a troubling question. Private Lynch's non-fatal injuries, acquired in a vehicle accident, are worthy of (and acknowledged by) a Purple Heart. No one disputes that. Why then are the numerous FATAL injuries that have been sustained by our troops in vehicle accidents in Iraq (17 since May 1st ) being virtually ignored altogether? Also being ignored are the six fatalities from friendly fire, the seven from accidental explosions, the six more from air crashes, and so on all the way up to 52 unreported deaths to date since May 1st alone. In fact, the majority of fatalities among American soldiers - the majority! - are being deliberately ignored by the press, the military, and the Bush Administration in reporting the war's casualty statistics since Bush's "end of major combat" speech in May.

Before May 1st some 140 Americans had died in Bush's Iraq war. Since May 1st another 100 soldiers have died there, none of natural causes. That's 100 deaths in country since Bush decided it was over, not the 48 we're being spoon fed by the obedient and credulous mainstream press. To make the casualty figures seem less dire, less "major," we're being told to ignore deaths from injuries not directly inflicted by Iraqis.

If these 52 known fatalities are not combat related deaths, then why did these kids die in Iraq? If these 52 known fatalities were not combat related deaths then why is a Purple Heart awarded for identical proximate cause in a non-fatal, albeit highly publicized, injury incident? Like so very much about this war, neither the numbers, nor the morality reconcile.

Today, the death toll was reported as 163 killed since fighting began. But the actual death toll among American military forces in Iraq reached 240 today (244 by some estimates). Every one of them counts to somebody, even if not to our "leaders." Of all their lies, damned lies, and statistics, this one is surely the most vile.

- email from Dom Stasi
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The legacy of the uncounted dead is not lost on us, at least those who see family/friends suffer due to the loss.
While the Bush Administration's lunatics spend millions on online betting for terror related contract awards, others mourn their dead.
A sense of priorities or at least morality?

Not in this White House

www.cbsnews.com...

Miss. Lynch became the poster child for the War. I'm surprised she isn't at campaign fund raisers with Bush.

She got into an accident, big deal. I don't see how she is a war hero...

The Bronze Star is recognition for heroism or meritorious achievement in ground combat.

I've always been curious, as to how taking a wrong turn straight into an enemy position, and then being taken prisoner...qualifies as "meritorious achievement in ground combat".... Can somebody in the military please clarify this for me?

The Bush admin is really stretching for "heroes" in this war. Just like they stretched to have hollywood celebrities try to make them look glamorous. I think Arnold showed up and maybe Dennis Miller.
The admin really appears more and more like the Nixon whitehouse around 1971. Amazingly some of the same characters are still here, Kissenger, Cheney Et al.
I heard on NPR (the liberal radio) that the whole town had been cleaned for Lynch's return. they put yellow ribbons on everything over 36 inches high and even painted her house.
Makes me wonder how the Vietnam vets are feeling these days.......
Also, as medals go. They have become strickly a public relations gimmick. There were 50 medalof honors given out to the soldiers of Grenada. 50 for a two day "war". I think there were only 37 given out in the entire European campaign of the Second World War!
I see this as another prop from those in authority.


[You are absolutely free]

Yeah Spliiter's right,

She hasn't done crap for anyone else,
She didn't kill any enemies,
She didn't die for her country,
She didn't save any of her friends...

She wasted thousands of dollars after she got captured so Special Forces could come in and rescue her.
Helicopter fuel isn't cheap, bullets aren't cheap, Army Ranger's overtime salary isn't cheap.

Now let's look at the good things:

She gave the news channels something to do for about a week, (at least now they had something to show besides commercials)

....uhmmm, well that's all she did.

I personally don't like her.
She's not a hero.

Disgusted,
Tassadar

Tassadar

It seems to have worked on you.

Read the article Bout Time posted again.

80 dead, but unaccounted for, Americans.

But you only remember the name of Jessica Lynch.

You just have to laugh at this entire situation. How many troops have we lost thus far? Buy Lynch is the most important for some reason, and as someone already pointed out, she didn't do a damn thing.

It's strange how this country works. Hundreds of thousands are born everyday in this country, yet somehow a pair of quintuplets are the most important ones (despite the fact that being born quintuplets will be the last noteworthy thing these kids do in their lives).

Hundreds if not thousands of people die everyday in this country, but Laci Peterson is the only one worth mentioning.

We have lost a soldier everyday since the war began, but Lynch was the most "heroic" one of them all because she wrecked her Hummer (God only knows how she did that). It's really all very pathetic...

A missed point and a likely conspiracy: We have huge gov. contractors & only a select few, yet we have 10%-20% of the fatalities in this war attributed to vehicular failure/accidents.

Hmmm.....