Four Thousand US Deaths Should Spark Congressional Debate
As such things are counted, this past weekend we crossed the threshold of four thousand U.S. deaths in Iraq. This fact, in itself, should spark congressional debate on what the U.S. is doing in Iraq, and how and when we are going to get out.
The Washington/pundit conventional wisdom since late last year has been that Iraq has receded as an issue, as a result of the “success” of the surge in reducing violence, or because the majority in Congress has given up on the idea of trying to force a change in course under the present administration, because there doesn’t yet exist an effective Senate majority for any action which would force a change in course.
This misses a lot. It misses the fact that the “surge” has failed to produce national political reconciliation in Iraq, its stated goal. It misses the fact that reduced violence in Iraq (a welcome reduction to a still intolerable level) is as much, if not more, a result of the U.S. accord with part of the Sunni insurgency and the cease-fire of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, than of the increased deployment of U.S. troops. Regardless of what one thinks of these developments, they are essentially diplomatic and political rather than military developments, and could both easily unravel if there isn’t significant progress towards political resolution of Iraq’s conflicts, leaving us back in the situation that existed before the surge, many violent deaths ago.
The conventional wisdom also misses important facts about the role of congressional debate in our national political life, and the role of congressional debate in the process of policy change.
Congressional action and debate shapes press coverage, public opinion and even public knowledge. Consider the poll earlier this month by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “Awareness of Iraq War Fatalities Plummets.”
It found that:
Public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28% of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war. As of March 10, the Department of Defense had confirmed the deaths of 3,974 U.S. military personnel in Iraq.
In August 2007, 54% correctly identified the fatality level at that time (about 3,500 deaths). In previous polls going back to the spring of 2004, about half of respondents could correctly estimate the number of U.S. fatalities around the time of the survey.
Pew notes that “the drop in awareness comes as press attention to the war has waned.” The percentage of news stories devoted to the war has sharply declined since last summer.
The fall-off in press coverage has more than one cause, but a key cause was the abandonment of congressional debate. Congressional debate is an effect, but it is also a cause. And the abandonment of debate led to a self-fulfilling prophecy: by abandoning debate, Congress sent a signal to the news media that Iraq was as not important as it had been judged previously, the news media reduced coverage, the public became less-informed, and this contributed to the perception that Iraq was a less important issue.
Surely the fact that just over a quarter of American adults could say about how many Americans had been killed in Iraq represents an indictment of our media and the actions of our political leaders.
The conventional wisdom judged it reasonable for Congress to abandon debate when it proved unable to maintain a majority for effective action to force a change in course. There is a certain superficial logic to this: focus on what you can accomplish. But this misses the fact that the decision of Congress to debate or not to debate has consequences, even when effective action is beyond their immediate grasp. The Vietnam War was not ended all at once. There were many votes which were lost by opponents of the war, all of which contributed over time to the erosion of support which helped force the U.S. withdrawal. In a context in which the conventional wisdom is that Iraq is no longer an important issue, having a significant congressional debate would in itself be an important victory towards ending the war.
Robert Naiman is Senior Policy Analyst and National Coordinator at Just Foreign Policy.
Copyright © 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
November 17 / 18, 2007
Pentagon Cover Up
15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War?
By MIKE WHITNEY
The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.
CBS’s Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed–that between 1995 and 2007– there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.
Baloney.
The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “there were at least 6,256 among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week in just one year.”
That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that “multiple-tours of duty” in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.
If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney11172007.html
The much touted 4000 is just the tip of the iceberg…
Has anyone counted all of the wounded soldiers who are carted off to Germany and then die in the hospital? These are generally not counted as combat deaths. They just died of unspecified causes so they won’t affect the “count” and so that the survivors will get fewer benefits. But we don’t do body counts anyway, as I recall.
The true cost of the illegal invasion and subsequent occupation boggles the mind.
I agree wholeheartedly that the 4000 figure understates the U.S. death toll. Nonetheless, since it is the official count, it is an important marker, and deserves more attention and awareness than it has received.
Note that, according to Pew,
“In the current poll, more respondents underestimated than overestimated the number of fatalities.”
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/762/political-knowledge-update
The sad but most important thing to understand is that no number of soldier deaths will stop George and Dick from ending this illegal occupation. They simply do not care. When journalist Martha Radditz interviewed Dick and asked him what he thought about more than 66% of Americans who want the illegal occupation to end, he metaphorically waived his middle finger at all of us saying “so?” To them, it does not matter if 150,000 troops die. There is no way they are giving up this illegal occupation. Impeachment needs to be put back on the table.
The lack of official estimates of the Iraqi non-combatants killed in the conflict since King George I’s initial sorties is reason enough for a long overdue Congressional Debate. Is it that our government has no idea what sort of carnage we’re wreaking in the mideast, or that if it were publicly known even the religious “right” might start doubting the morality of an oil grab?
simonhhh:
Thanks for the post as I have heard about this suicide rate but had not seen the article.
The math on the human cost is as insane as the McCain plan to stay for 100 years, or perhaps even 1,000 ?
Using the conservative 100 year figure the American price will be 300,000 dead, 1,000,000 wounded and 4,000,000 disabled. The Iraqis will have perhaps 15 million dead over the next century.
The price tag might run up to 60-100 $Trillion Dollars, that is if the dollar is still a viable currency 100 years from now.
This is not a sick joke. The larger American bases built in Iraq are engineered to be permanent facilities !
What a terrible price to pay for $10 Trillion worth of Iraqi oil reserves.
And has anyone noticed that Joe (who sponsored the Iraq war resolution S.J. Res.46 ) Lieberman is standing right behind McCain wherever he goes now to feed him policy lines straight from the neocon Zionist think tank from hell !
Why would 4,000 deaths spark debate when 3,000 deaths on 9/11 sparked chest-thumping unity?
JConrad
You’re right, basic economic theory dictate in the Long Run War production and expenditure are distructive to the ecomomy; including the misallocation of the nations resources both blood and treasure…
The McInsane and Lyingman duo are appalling dinasaurs from the Joseph McCarthy era; just replace the communism hype with neocon terrorism hype
No price is too high for Texas oilmen.
“Four Thousand US Deaths Should Spark Congressional Debate”?
What? Are “we” forgetting to do a “little” counting, here, maybe?
I didn’t read the article and will NOT do so, neither. Lousy article to come across on me 51st bday.
Try, “The HUGE number of Iraqis killed, even “only” the large number killed during 2003 alone, should have been far more than enough to spark congressional debate; or, and better, for Congress to fully end the damn war, immediately!”. Far more fitting for title this would be.
It’d still be a lousy article to come across on me 51st bday, and getting ever closer to me final dday, for all of this is OLD … stuff; it’s old and many-times-repeated-already views.
Yuck. Make me 51st bday cause me to feel like it’s me dday already, why don’t ya. Keep killing us with such OLD bla; wasn’t old at first, but it grew old since, like some years ago already.
Well, since they’re going to consider that 4,000 U.S. troops dead because of this war being enough to spark congressional debate, while 1,000,000+ Iraqis dead, and so on, because of this same war (of aggression, hence against peace) is made to seem like it’s nearly insignificant; it reminds me of the bad Talmud’s (the bad, not the good or at least saner Talmud) teaching that the death of one Jew by a non-Jew merits the deaths (murders) of 1,000 Muslims or others among all us goyems, sub-humans lower than cows, maybe even hogs.
YUCK.
Thanks Simonhhh, as I posted on another article this morning there are indications that the actual number of US KIA since 2003 may be as high as 80,000. I would love to see a MSM piece blowing the lid off this numerical charade. On a tangential note, I wonder if CD will ever rid us of the inane riverman and his childish tirades? Please?
I think Mike Corbeil’s criticism here, while I empathize with the underlying sentiment, is misdirected.
It’s absolutely true that far, far more attention should be paid to the Iraq death toll. But this is no reason not to also direct more attention to the U.S. death toll, especially given the Pew survey indicating that most Americans, a few weeks ago, didn’t know what it was.
The ‘Credible’ Human Toll of War
Another Iraq-Vietnam Link: Many Killed By US War
by Robert Naiman
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/25/3401/
Is the U.S. Responsible for the Death of Nearly a Million Iraqis?
by Robert Naiman
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/11/2454/
Mike Corbeil March 25th, 2008 2:54 pm …YOU have it right…BUT, let us also consider that the IRAQI dead include INNOCENT….. YES,….INNOCENT women, children AND INFANTS!
…the IRAQI dead are ALL innocent. Ditto Afghanistan.
The 9/11 airmail complaint was about U.S. support for Israeli atrocities.
I myself had emailed cautions about this to our Israeli Republican Senators, Clinton and Lieberman, many times in the Summer of 2001. Since U.S. unconditional support for this Neo-Holocaust continues we should be ready for another complaint. Alas…
Now, we all agree that Rove is no longer on the company payroll, yes? So why the f**k are we still using his lie-frames while wondering why “the people” are so out of touch?
Repeat after me: The United States of America never was, nor is it now, at “war” with Iraq. NEVER, understand? Say “war” and “the people” cower and accept that the president has “war powers,” which are like God powers to “the people” - in other words, unquestionable.
Now, repeat after me again: The United States of America ILLEGALLY INVADED Iraq and now ILLEGALLY OCCUPIES Iraq. See the difference? “The people” hear “we” are committing “war crimes” instead of hearing that “we” are at “war.”
Got it? Good. Now, Lesson 2: there is no such thing as a “military troop surge.” The word is ESCALATION. Surge is defined as “to increase suddenly.” The ESCALATION was announced publicly, then rolled out slowly, and continues now more than a year later. There never was, nor is there now, any military surge taking place whatsoever.
Lesson 3: there is no such thing as “waterboarding.” There is such a thing as WATER TORTURE, assuming water is used and not, say, iced tea or Coke. There’s surfboarding, wakeboarding, bodyboarding, snowboarding - there’s even skyboarding. But there is no such thing as “waterboarding.” You want “the people” outraged, they need to know the CIA aren’t training the alleged and the suspected for the Beijing Olympics.
Words used to be so important…
…and the Spitzer scandal…is BREAKING NEWS. Sex sells…who cares about LIES to engage in war or the death of innocent Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. SPITZER that’s what the American people and media giants want.
Mouse March 25th, 2008 3:24 pm …..Do you have any sources for those US KIA figures? I would really like to do some research….I also have my doubts, as I am sure do many others, about the government figures. Thanks….Incidentally, I contacted CD about Riverman…waiting for a response…
Sorry but I abhor censorship. It’s so conservative. How about, if you don’t like someone’s posts, don’t read them?
ezeflyer March 25th, 2008 9:26 pm …..The present “conservative” government has basically taken over all mass media via 5 or 6 corporations and thereby controls what MOST of the populace reads, sees or listens to. For those without computers, how is it possible for them “not to read” when it’s total innundation? Someone, as in this case on CD, MUST object. If this is censorship of censorship, so be it. Silence is compliance.
“As such things are counted, this past weekend we crossed the threshold of four thousand U.S. deaths in Iraq. This fact, in itself, should spark congressional debate on what the U.S. is doing in Iraq, and how and when we are going to get out.”
4,000 U.S. deaths? No, that won’t do it. 5,000 U.S. deaths, then Congress should debate! No wait, make that 6,000 U.S. deaths. Er, 7,000…
I’m waiting with baited breath for Congress to debate.
“But this is no reason not to also direct more attention to the U.S. death toll, especially given the Pew survey indicating that most Americans, a few weeks ago, didn’t know what it was.”
Oh God. And these same people are going to vote?
I quit e-mailing my congressman [Rick Larsen, Democrat of Wa.St.]. He voted for the war, and funding for it at every turn. I consider him at this time to be a war criminal. I e-mailed him many times over the years with what would pretty much turn out to be prophetic predictions and advice. Needless to say none of my advice was ever heeded. I stand by the content of each and every one of my e-mails. He seems like a nice guy if you just go up and talk to him, but I guess you could probably say the same for most serial murder’s in prison.
A Canadian newspaper reported:
“According to U.S. media reports, there are well below 5,000 U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq. However, this data appears to be very misleading. Why? Because many tens of thousands of American soldiers have apparently been killed to-date, as a result of being exposed to radiation poisoning from the indiscriminate killing machines of U.S. military weaponry. Ironically, the only Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that Americans soldiers have found in Iraq are “Made in America”.
U.S. investigative researchers have discovered an official U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs official, but not well publicized count, of 73,846 U.S. soldiers who have perished as an apparent result of Depleted Uranium based bio-chemical warfare exposure. This exceeds an estimate of 58,000 U.S. soldiers who had been killed in relation to the Vietnam War.
Well over 200,000 American soldiers could be killed by 2010, as a result of the after effects of exposure to U.S. dirty bombs.
Over One million U.S. soldiers have apparently been disabled from Depleted Uranium based biochemical exposure. Over one million Iraqis have also been documented to have been killed.
This is what the U.S. ruling elite including U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain calls a “success”. How many sons and daughters of the American ruling class have been sent in harms way of the apparent biological warfare that is being perpetrated in Iraq? Not to many, huh? The Iraq War is a class-and-racial-inspired war that is being masqueraded into being about fighting “extremists” and “terrorists”. The Iraq War is an extension of brutality by the prevailing elites…”
Byrne….
…and the Spitzer scandal…is BREAKING NEWS. Sex sells…who cares about LIES to engage in war or the death of innocent Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. SPITZER that’s what the American people and media giants want.
Sadly, Spitzer dropped the ball bigtime…just before he was about to nail the neocons…I don’t approve of his deeds with prostitution…but wasn’t it convenient that the government nailed him at such a convenient moment for Wall Street, etc. That was no accident.
JConrad….
And has anyone noticed that Joe (who sponsored the Iraq war resolution S.J. Res.46 ) Lieberman is standing right behind McCain wherever he goes now to feed him policy lines straight from the neocon Zionist think tank from hell !
Lieb and McCain are joined at the hip now!!! Lieb is whispering…pick me, pick me….while he is the prompter for the speeches that McCain can’t keep straight!!McCain is such a loss….3 am call….Now who was I going to bomb…Iraq? Iran? Iowa?
War? No. Occupation? No. Crusade? Yes.
One of the Bush/Cheney fear-monger points is that “The Evil Ones” want a Caliphate. Well if you look at the map the Bush/Cheney mafia are one piece of the puzzle away from militarily controlling the same configuration.
A hint as to the remaining piece: 4 letter word - starts with I ends in disaster.
(well ok Unchained, they might bomb Iowa too)
Peace.