Think Progress

Pentagon leaves 20,000 out of wounded soldier tally.

A USA Today analysis of data provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs has found that “at least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries.” The numbers “show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30.” The uncounted cases compiled by USA Today are “not reflected in the Pentagon’s official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.”



60 Responses to “Pentagon leaves 20,000 out of wounded soldier tally.”

  1. Marie says:

    As Murtha said, “After all they have told us in the past, you STILL believe the Pentagon? Eh?”


  2. Fan of Man says:

    at this point and time in the USA, never under ANY circumstance should you trust ANY part of govt.


  3. Doc Rock says:

    The rot started at the top of the barrel!


  4. Bush Cover Ups says:

    If the democrats released the real casualty figures there would be an uproar on the streets of America for withdrawal

    GET THE REAL FIGURES OUT NOW


  5. thecowboydictator says:

    lies and more lies. I hope the dems have the guts to handle the mess.when they take over in 08…very sad when they lie about taking care of our own….


  6. Bush Cover Ups says:

    Japan tanker ends Afghan mission

    A Japanese navy tanker has returned to Tokyo from the Indian Ocean, marking the end of the country’s six-year support mission of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

    Also despite the spin on all the newspapers that American warships were aloud into Honk Kong , IT WAS A LIE they werent


  7. Marcus Aurelius says:

    They must be using Wall Street math.


  8. Bush Cover Ups says:

    Also despite the spin on all the newspapers that American warships were NOT allowed into Honk Kong


  9. Michael Lafferty says:

    20,000 here: 20,000 there. Pretty soon they’re real soldiers, not simply statistics.

    The real cost of this serious misadventure will be tallied in the tens of billions of dollars, the hundreds of thousands of shattered lives, and the many decades of pain inflicted on all involved in this conflict. In the meantime, old ‘all hat and no cattle’ will stumble merrily along, clearing brush from the ‘ranch’ thinking that history doesn’t matter…


  10. Wayne says:

    I have been posting that Bushco has been lying about the number of wounded for a long time. It is just a small part of their systematic screwing of veterans and war wounded.

    Republicans support the troops, my A$$.


  11. toasterhead says:

    20,000 here: 20,000 there. Pretty soon they’re real soldiers, not simply statistics.

    Comment by Michael Lafferty — November 23, 2007 @ 10:11 am

    I thought they were commas.


  12. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    Is the number they keep giving for the dead accurate, or is that BuschCo math too?


  13. Chocolate Jesus says:

    why does reality hate the troops?

    i’ve heard that some mortally wounded troops get retired before their death so they arent counted in the total. anyone got a link to some credible info about how this works?


  14. GSD says:

    Bush Republicans ‘care’ for the US troops by hiding their injuries and pretending they don’t matter all because of Bush Political Correctness.

    Bush would rather use Karl Rove’s math than offer the healthcare that is needed for wounded American soldiers.

    -GSD


  15. Chocolate Jesus says:

    >at least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during >combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain >injuries.

    signs of brain injuries? this must be the 20,000 who want to stay in iraq…


  16. DieNowForPeace says:

    Can’t believe anything coming from the Dept. of War especially during a politically motivated war of choice.


  17. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    What did that bloated, putrifying piece of excrement Roger Ailes reportedly say at West Point recently… ???

    When something goes wrong, you don’t have to tell the public the truth?

    Ring a bell, anyone??? It’s impossible to NOT hate these folks at this point.


  18. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    Well, that is indeed what Ailes said.

    Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Lectures West Point Cadets About ‘The Military And The Media’

    http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/19/roger-ailes-west-point/

    Lesson 3: When Things Go Bad, The Public Doesn’t Need To Know: “Fox spent half as much time covering the Iraq war than MSNBC during the first three months” of 2007, “and considerably less than CNN.”

    Whatta POS!!!


  19. VerbalKint says:

    I have heard that soldiers who die after being evacuated out of Iraq for serious injuries are not being counted, either.


  20. RUCerious says:

    Rove must have used his math to come up with the original figures.


  21. RUCerious says:

    #17 TRoS ~

    No. Not if you have a conscience.

    Explains why many repukelickins have no problem with this.


  22. DaveRywall says:

  23. Wayne says:

    I have heard that soldiers who die after being evacuated out of Iraq for serious injuries are not being counted, either.

    Comment by VerbalKint — November 23, 2007 @ 10:56 am

    Yep. This is a resurrection of the same kind of old math they used in Nam.


  24. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    Explains why many repukelickins have no problem with this.

    Comment by RUCerious — November 23, 2007 @ 10:58 am

    After BuschCo is finally retired to Paraguay, will Rupert Murdoch kindly go w/ him? I would LOVE to see Rupert tossed out of the country, legally.


  25. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    This is a resurrection of the same kind of old math they used in Nam.

    Comment by Wayne — November 23, 2007 @ 11:01 am

    So this is true. Someone dies in a military hospital in Germany, they don’t get counted. Charming.


  26. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    Well, that is indeed what Ailes said.

    Fox News Chief Roger Ailes Lectures West Point Cadets About ‘The Military And The Media’

    Actually, that not what Ailes said. It’s what the article said he could say, and that’s way too confusing of a line this early in the day.


  27. Bobwurst says:

    Maybe they’re just using bush as a benchmark. Anyone who has better cognative skills than bush isn’t brain damaged. I know i shouldn’t joke about this but it’s just too sad.


  28. freeman says:

    We’re not in the business of body counts !
    20,000 here ,20 000 there , give them a break , it’s hard to keep up when the corpses of millions of innocent people keep getting in the way .


  29. toasterhead says:

    I wonder if not classifying them as wounded is a loophole that will allow the Pentagon to demand a refund on their enlistment bonus.


  30. Wayne says:

    Someone dies in a military hospital in Germany, they don’t get counted. Charming.

    Comment by The Republic of Stupidity — November 23, 2007 @ 11:06 am

    They are labeling the count as battlefield fatalities. Dying in another country away from the battlefield doesn’t cover that now does it?

    Those that died at Walter Reed are not counted either.
    The Same Old Lies are being told to the public.


  31. GSD says:

    Pete Stark was right. Bush is amused by all the deaths of US troops. It makes him feel like the Commander Guy.

    I think he’s the Genocide Guy.

    -GSD


  32. GSD says:

    Commander Guy is such a buffoon that China is now shoving the US military’s nose in shit.

    Nice work ass-hat.

    China denies US ships on Thanksgiving.

    -GSD


  33. Krazny says:

    The good news, if we don’t classify them as wounded, then we don’t have to pay for any medical bills, or worry about the families. I mean cmon it is a win win right?

    How sad, that this what our country has come to.


  34. Wayne says:

    I think he’s the Genocide Guy.

    -GSD
    Comment by GSD — November 23, 2007 @ 11:35 am

    You call yourself a Christian
    I think that you’re a hypocrite
    You say you are a patriot
    I think that you’re a crock of sh!t
    – SWEET NEO CON
    (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards)


  35. VerbalKint says:

    What? No troll scum to derail the thread? Are they sleeping off their frenzy of the last 48 hours?


  36. bilbobaggins says:

    It will only be after a Democratic President takes office that we will learn the true casualty rate in Iraq also. Since they only count people who actually died IN IRAQ from their injuries, some experts think our casualty rate is three times what is reported. They don’t report the people who died from injuries received in Iraq if they die outside of Iraq, like at a hospital in Germany. Then if they were to add the number of soldiers who have committed suicide because of their experiences in Iraq, the number would be even higher. It makes me sick to see the way this administration manipulates the numbers to keep us from knowing the truth.


  37. Wayne says:

    What? No troll scum to derail the thread? Are they sleeping off their frenzy of the last 48 hours?

    Comment by VerbalKint — November 23, 2007 @ 11:51 am

    Meth can only keep you going so long, before the crash…..


  38. Witch1 says:

    Much of the new’s that is truly credible is coming from the internet..During Nam and our peace activest work then was carried by underground new’s sources and word of mouth…We did have better black and white television coverage and at least some true journalests as well…Fast forward to the internet which is a quicker version of the underground…Television has been reduced to lie’s, sales and political propaganda…..Many in our population do not have internet access, some lack the ability to use it if they did have access…Talking to many senior citizen’s,I know they are not tapped into our information highway…Sadly they are a large block of the uninformed voting public…It has to be our job to help educate these voters….Blessings all


  39. RUCerious says:

    Good morning WitchyOne!

    It certainly is a sad state of affairs when many young people don’t bother to vote, and older folks are out of the information stream.

    Fourteen months more of this lunacy!


  40. Starve-A-Bush_Feed-A-Beaver says:

    The Pentagon has always been America’s lie factory. That portion of the military where it intersects with the political has never been known as a paragon of truth, giving you such gems as the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the phoney body counts of the enemy in the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has only encouraged the Pentagon to exceed itself in this regard.


  41. Veritas says:

    The Pentagon is another worthless Bushwipe! Nothing credible is coming out of ANY office of Bush’s twisted administration. It’s all been smoke & mirrors and will always be smoke & mirrors since we are dealing with a pathologically compromised leader who has installed puppets in every nook and cranny of this government.


  42. Veritas says:

    Hi Bartlebee! I’m figuring that’s precisely what will occur. We’ll discover that the numbers of our war dead in this blood for oil war of Bush’s has been underreported as well. We KNOW that Bush and his whoring media are making things up as they go. Truth is nowhere to be found in this government any longer.


  43. Veritas says:

    Since he doesn’t include the cost of caring for our vets with life-long injuries, there’s NO WAY the figures he’s reporting can be accurate.


  44. dr7854 says:

    Make no mistake, you can bet everything you have that the number of soldiers killed in action is not the true number either. If you are a gambler, and you bet on whether, or not this administration is telling the truth in each individual “fact” they disclose, if you just bet every time that their “fact” is a lie, you will never have to work another day in your life! I don’t even think any single one of them knows what’s true, and what’s not, on everything they tell us, anymore.


  45. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    The Same Old Lies are being told to the public.

    Comment by Wayne — November 23, 2007 @ 11:34 am

    I don’t have the words to describe how infuriating and repulsive this strikes me as being.


  46. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    I don’t even think any single one of them knows what’s true, and what’s not, on everything they tell us, anymore.

    Comment by dr7854 — November 23, 2007 @ 1:11 pm

    And this is not an accident.

    If you don’t know the truth, how do you know what to do?


  47. Witch1 says:

    Back at ya RU, Yep! Few people are truly awake these day’s unless it affect’s them personely, even many awake refuse to act…This administration has helped create a selfish,lazy,appathetic generation..It is very sad…Along with the above we have a very angry society that has not figured out the real root cause of their anger and how to fix it, instead they direct their anger at their neighbor’s or any one that disagrees with their particuler mind set no matter how weird it may be. Logical and compassionate thinking are lost to ” Big brother tell me what to do”…..Trusting you are having a great week end…..Blessings and a hug to your dear one….


  48. RUCerious says:

    I don’t even think any single one of them knows what’s true, and what’s not, on everything they tell us, anymore.
    Comment by dr7854 — November 23, 2007 @ 1:11 pm

    Not that they give half a shit anyhoo.


  49. dr7854 says:

    #47- I actually think it is at a point where the lies are so numerous that they have lost control of them, and they have taken on a life of their own. Although I agree that so much of it was planned, I think it grew even beyond the control of those who were behind it. That is why I don’t think any single one of the liars knows all the truths. When you are that dishonest, and corrupt, you are always equally, if not more paranoid, and untrusting. Just look at Nixon. Listen to the Nixon tapes, and you will understand exactly what I mean, if you don’t already.


  50. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    Listen to the Nixon tapes, and you will understand exactly what I mean, if you don’t already.

    Comment by dr7854 — November 23, 2007 @ 1:23 pm

    This is what happens to liars. Eventually, they lose the ability to know what true or not anymore, and they become hopelessly lost in their own lies. Yes, I would say this has happened to the Busch Admin. They’re completely lost in their own fantasy land at this point and don’t even know it anymore.


  51. dr7854 says:

    51-I agree 100%, not that it absolves them of the crimes they have committed, nor the lies they have told. Ignorance of the law is not a valid defense, and when you lie knowingly that much even when you may not have realized it at the time in some cases, it is no excuse either. IE: Scott McClellan’s recent claim that he did not provide the truth when he said Rove, and Libby had nothing to do with the outing of Valerie Plame, but that he did not realize it then, because HE was lied to. Their were many more times he lied, and knew it, and if what he says now is true, he could have said something long ago when he claims he did find out the truth. .


  52. The Republic of Stupidity says:

    “… that theres going to be hell to pay.”

    Comment by BARTLEBEE — November 23, 2007 @ 1:44 pm

    Hell has alredy been handsomely paid in this affair. I just hope some well deserved retribution gets meted out.


  53. Gregor Samsa says:

    Makes you wonder what the real human cost of the war is.

    It also makes you wonder the extent the Pentagon will go to, in order to help the Bush administration “sell” the war, as I highly doubt this was an honest mistake.


  54. VerbalKint says:

    I think Bush often does not understand basic differences between right and wrong. He is very comfortable with lying, for example. I don’t think there is any lie that is off limits to him.


  55. justme says:

    And that 30K tally of total wounded? Also total BS.

    http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf110907-1.htm

    More like 200K. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 of returning troops file for disability. I’m sure that quite a few of them are flat out denied, to keep the numbers and costs down, but that’s still hugely at odds with the official tally, seven times or thereabouts.

    If the death toll were fudged by a similar factor, which though I have no evidence or information that would indicate it is, is not entirely an unreasonable assertion, the count would be around 25K, nearly half that of the Vietnam war. It makes one wonder.


  56. pete says:

    Herr Goebbels would be proud.


  57. MapleStreet says:

    Head injuries affect their brain and their ability to interact in the USA when they return. Apparently, neither of these are important to the Pentagon.


  58. pete says:

    Comment by BARTLEBEE — November 23, 2007 @ 6:28 pm

    That’s the problem with delusional authoritarians. They actually believe their fantasies and manage to convince themselves that opposing voices are wrong. I’m sure that Georgie will be convinced he’s the “best president ever” till his dying day. Even if he spends the remainder of his years in prison.

    This is kind of a long read but, if you haven’t read it I strongly recommend it.
    http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/


  59. had enough says:

    I have been posting that Bushco has been lying about the number of wounded for a long time. It is just a small part of their systematic screwing of veterans and war wounded.

    Republicans support the troops, my A$$.

    Comment by Wayne

    —

    For some time I have also posted on another lie – the correct number of those that have died. The number they, the DOD, tell you is the correct number for those that actually died on Iraqi soil… but those that died while en route to the hospital or after in the hospital is not reported and is 5 times that from what I have heard. Recently there war something in the news, for a very brief time, concerning loved ones of lost military not seeing their names posted as have died while in Iraq…. and the report went on to say that the number could be as high as 15,000 dead military.


  60. pete says:

    Comment by had enough — November 23, 2007 @ 8:11 pm

    There was a gentleman, a former VA doctor, who quoted the same figure on a local radio show. He also said that it’s policy to claim inflated numbers of “enemy” casualties when U.S. forces take casualties of their own.

    Quote: “If two of our guys get hurt, or killed, the pentagon claims 20 insurgents hurt, or killed, often when their has been no actual combat.”

    It’s reminiscent of the Luftwaffe claiming twice their losses to keep Goering happy. As long as they were claiming a 2-1 ratio, Hermann could tell Hitler they were “winning”.



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