Casualty lists are inflated by media..

[muckmaw]

Accoring to this websight:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/page6.html

There have been 843 coalition deaths, 737 Americans, 59 Britons, six Bulgarians, one Dane, one Estonian, 17 Italians, two Poles, one Salvadoran, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and six Ukrainians, in the war as of April 29, 2004

Of the 843 deaths reported, one would believe they were combat related.

After reading the list of causes of death, 501 were combat related.

The bulk of non-combat related deaths were traffic accidents, with a few heart attacks and one soldier accidentally drowning in a swimming pool.

Though I believe every death is a tragedy, the situation in Iraq is not as bleak as the media makes it out to be, and it's certainly no Vietnam.

[muckmaw]

BTW, I did not know we lost 2 F-15E's and a British plane was knocked down by a Patriot Missle Battery.

[Gixer]

Yes but wasn't the fighting suppose to be over a year ago? And this month it's some 100 + killed already. I cease to see the difference between combat and non combat. Still a casualty in theatre.  Dosn't make it any easier for the family.

True you can't compare to vietnam and hopefully it never will be compared to vietnam but it's early days still in Iraq.

Oh, you forgot the civilan casualties. 10,000 plus? Who knows how many dead there.

Pesonally I think the casualties in Iraq are alot worse then we were ever led to believe they would be.  And certinly not suppose to be any fighting still going on at the scale we see today one year out. The fighting seems to be esculating if anything. Which is why the Generals have just requested more heavy armour.

Funny considering Bush's little victory speech  "end to major combat operations" a year ago.  Seems the major combat operations are only just starting.




...-Gixer

[muckmaw]

You cannot count combat and non-combat together, because if a guy was going to have a heart attack, he was going to have it in Qatar or Iowa.

There were several soldiers who died in their sleep. A few died while training...ie:running.

If these soldiers were at home, then the accidents would have happened there.

It is unfair of the media to prop up the casualty lists just to create a panic and sell a newspaper, while undermining the war effort.

[Sixpence]

Originally posted by muckmaw
and it's certainly no Vietnam.

It will be if it goes on for 25 years, as one senator from Nebraska has mentioned.

[MrLars]

Originally posted by muckmaw


It is unfair of the media to prop up the casualty lists just to create a panic and sell a newspaper, while undermining the war effort.

Yeah, the media is misleading us big time on this. You know that if a soldier gets wounded and is medivac'd then dies enroute to the med facility he's not included in the official combat death rolls in Bush's war?

Yeah, only the media has the audacity to fudge these numbers.

[GtoRA2]

MrLars
 your always posting stuff like this and never posting a link.

 Sounds like BS to me.

[muckmaw]

BS, Lars...

Look at the casualty list I posted. Read the causes of death. I counted every last one of them.

If a soldier was wounded and died in Germany, Its counted.

If a soldier drowns in a swimming pool in Iraq...it's counted.

Tell me that's not inflating the number to sell panic.

[muckmaw]

1st Lt. Michael W. Vega  41  223rd Military Intelligence Company, 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion, California Army National Guard  Lathrop, California  Vega was injured when his military vehicle rolled over in Diwaniyah, Iraq, on March 11, 2004. He was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., where he died on March 20, 2004.

This was one of many who were injured in traffic accidents, evacuated state side and died of their injuries in the USA.

They were counted as combat casualties by the press.


First page I pulled up...read the causes and then comment, Lars.

[GtoRA2]

Muck
 lol you're so optimistic!

[TheDudeDVant]

Originally posted by muckmaw
1st Lt. Michael W. Vega  41  223rd Military Intelligence Company, 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion, California Army National Guard  Lathrop, California  Vega was injured when his military vehicle rolled over in Diwaniyah, Iraq, on March 11, 2004. He was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., where he died on March 20, 2004.

This was one of many who were injured in traffic accidents, evacuated state side and died of their injuries in the USA.

They were counted as combat casualties by the press.


First page I pulled up...read the causes and then comment, Lars.

He was injured in a combat zone, correct?

A soldier injured/killed in theater should be shown as a combat casualtie...  Seems reasonable..

dude

[Dago]

Yes but wasn't the fighting suppose to be over a year ago?  

Did you get that from a Quiji board?

 I don't remember anyone saying that fighting would be done by a certain date.  Only Bush saying that major combat ops were finished.  Unless you would consider the tit-for tat in Fallujah to be major combat ops (I don't), the major combat ops have been over.  Now it is more just small guerilla tactics, nowhere near what would be described as "major".

I just love it when people make such statements as the one that.  I heard some Iraqi woman asking where is all the money, jobs, etc that the US promised?  I never heard us promise any such nonsense.  If I could have, I would challenge her to show where that "promise" came from.


dago

[TheDudeDVant]

Was it not said that the US would bring 'peace and prosperity' to Iraqi??


dude

[muckmaw]

Originally posted by TheDudeDVant
He was injured in a combat zone, correct?

A soldier injured/killed in theater should be shown as a combat casualtie...  Seems reasonable..

dude

Your missing the point...

Take the same 150,000 soldiers and put then at their home bases. Now one of them has a car accident on Interstate 80...

He's in a Humvee...does that make him a combat casualty?

If you said yes, then we've got a freakin' war zone going on every day in the USA.

Stop being obtuse and for once, be intellectually honest.

[TheDudeDVant]

Originally posted by muckmaw
Your missing the point...

Take the same 150,000 soldiers and put then at their home bases. Now one of them has a car accident on Interstate 80...

He's in a Humvee...does that make him a combat casualty?

If you said yes, then we've got a freakin' war zone going on every day in the USA.

Stop being obtuse and for once, be intellectually honest.

imo no that would not make him a combat casualty if he was injured and died outside a theater of war...


dude