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THE COSTS OF WAR IN IRAQ — Homepage EMBEDABLE COUNTER — + 3 Important Websites!

Now that well over 1,000 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and well over 11,000 (high estimates are up to 18,000) maimed and seriously wounded there — American soldiers who have killed at least 20 *TIMES* that many Iraqi civilians and maimed and wounded perhaps 10's of 1,000's of Iraqi civilians — it's time to post this again. This was first posted by me, JA, July 25, 2003 (just a little over a year ago):

THE COST OF THE WAR IN IRAQ — Homepage EMBEDABLE COUNTER — + 4 Important Websites!

Check out 3 new/updated progressive websites -- and a home/webpage embedable monetary "COST OF THE WAR" counter. Good tools especially for progressives.

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A Web site called IRAQ COALITION CASUALTY COUNT:

is TRACKING THE DEATHS, BY WHATEVER CAUSE, OF U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL IN IRAQ, based on official Pentagon and CENTCOM press releases and Army Times and CNN casualty trackers. Their current count--as yet of this writing--is 85 since May 2.

Looking at the entire war, there was much fanfare Thursday, July 17, 2003, over the fact that the latest U.S. combat death this week pushed the official total to 148 -- finally topping the 147 figure for Gulf War I. (The U.S. mainstream/corporate media figure is now over 150.) However, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, the total number of all U.S. deaths, combat and otherwise, in Iraq is actually 224.

Bookmark:

http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

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Another source:

Calendar of U.S. Military Dead During Iraqi War

http://cryptome.org/mil-dead-iqw.htm

runs a calendar of US Military dead whose most recent edition listed as
"Updated 10 September 2004. Total 1,039 US Dead"

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This website is from Oakland (eastward across the bay from San Francisco), California's "Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized 4 Peace" (LMNOP), written about internationally.

There you will also find "THE COST OF THE WAR IN IRAQ" COUNTER and a way to EMBED IT IN YOUR OWN HOMEPAGE/WEBPAGE/WEBSITE. (And that's only what the U.S. is paying! -- not what Britain is paying too!)

And FANTASTIC, INSPIRING anti-war photos from around the world!

Bookmark:

http://lmno4p.org/

and its associated

http://COSTOFWAR.com/

This is the group that has STEADFASTLY and UNFLAGGINGLY had weekly, quietly dignified and eloquent, Lake Merritt Sunday Peace Walks of varying size--depending on what is going on in whatever American war--every Sunday at 3:00pm, starting at the northeast columns of the lake. Bring you own signs and/or help wave to the many passing people in cars who *still* very HEARTILY honk in support. It's a great way to get out, realize just how much great support the anti-war movement still has, get some excercise, have an enjoyable walk around the lake with, and MEET KINDRED SPIRIT PEOPLE!!

A *GREAT*, *INSPIRING*, *CREATIVE* WEBSITE!

There's *GREAT ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT PHOTOS* FROM AROUND THE WORLD!!

PHOTOS you probably haven't seen yet and OF INTERNATIONAL MARCHES/RALLIES/DEMOS you probably didn't know about!

Also website is chocked full of well-organized information about Peace issues in general, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, as well as civil liberties and anti-nuclear issues.

There's also a great chronicle--an article of record--of the "Battle of the Port of Oakland" police fiasco!

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And then there's

PROGRESSIVE PUNCH!:

These variously compiled composite percentages include ALL U.S. CONGRESSIONAL VOTING RECORDS--BY MEMBER (AND THEIR RATING/RANK) OR BY ISSUE--going back to January, 1991 or whenever a given member of Congress was first elected to his/her present office, whichever came later. These statistics are compiled on a broad range of issues and apply a progressive analysis to the votes cast. Search out what the rascals (and the *very* few good guys/gals) are--or have been--up to!

Bookmark:

http://www.progressivepunch.org

-

Joseph Anderson, Berkeley, CA, USA

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

What About Iraqi Military Deaths

15.09.2004 11:00

Thanks for all the info about US casualties. But do you have any info on how many Iraqi Soldiers were killed during the Invasion. It is a great mystery to me whay this is figure is always ignored by everyone

I know the Iraq Body Count gives a fugure between 12,721 and 14,752 as the an absolute minimum for the number of civilians killed. Of course, the real number of civilian deaths could be many times that number. But what about Iraqi military deaths?

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

military / civilian / resistance

15.09.2004 11:17

I'm not sure there would be much point at this time in diffirentiating between military and civilian deaths in Iraq as Iraq doesn't have a military any more. Sure for the first couple of week after the invasion there was a standing army and thousands were killed, but now it is non combatant civilians and combatant civilians (resistance / militia / terrorists / freedom fighters) who are being killed (plus journalists, international aid workers etc).

The US military doesn't care or distigush between any of them, they are all fair game.

ben

YES! WE MUST NOT FORGET!!: IraqBodyCount.net

15.09.2004 21:44

“Change the channel”
- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt's advice to Iraqis who see TV images of innocent civilians killed by coalition troops.

Also see:

IRAQ BODY COUNT: Civilians Reported Killed by U.S. Military Intervention in Iraq

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

There was no "benchmark" recognition when indiscriminate Iraqi civilian deaths passed the 1,000 mark -- not even when it passed the 5,000 or 10,000 mark. To the Western media, Iraqi civilian deaths are nothing to be mourned -- no more than the thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths at the hand of a settler-colonial apartheid state, or indiscriminate Afghan civilian deaths (and about 1 million, if you count the decade-long U.S.-provoked and sustained war with the Soviets), or indiscriminate Panamanian civilian deaths, or the *millions* of indiscriminate Vietnamese civilian deaths, ... And yet we have the nerve to wonder -- in psychological denial -- "Why do they hate us?"

This "Iraq Body Count" at the web address above is a fairly reserved count of confirmable and confirmed deaths. This count does NOT include Iraqi resistance fighters who died defending their country from the U.S.-imperialist occupation of their--i.e., the *Iraqis'*--land and the puppet regime the U.S. has set up. Even the establishment/coporate news (CBS News, in particular)--which always tends to undercount civilian deaths by the U.S. military--says the number of civilian deaths is at least (currently) 20,000. And other reasonable estimates are as high as (currently) about 37,000. The albeit broad 20,000 to 40,000 range is reasonable, as Israel killed about 20,000 civilians in its then invasion of Lebanon in 1982 (Israel also invaded in 1978) in a relatively smaller war.

And no more than Israel in its invasion of Lebaon, the U.S. military has obviously long-stopped really making any distinctions anymore between civilians (even children and teenagers playing around destroyed American military vehicles, as well as other curious or celebrating civilians) and combatants, or even journalists: NO ONE who gets in the way of the U.S. imperialist, oil grabbing goal; selling off Iraq's resources, infrastructure and economy, piece by piece to American corporations; and handing out lavish, U.S. taxpayer-funded, multibillion-dollar, crony-capitalist, sweetheart contracts to the U.S. military-industrial complex.

Joseph Anderson

The Hidden U.S. Military Casualties Overview

15.09.2004 22:09

Thousands of injured and ill soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan are not being counted in the Pentagon's official tally of the wounded because they are considered "non-hostile" casualties. Some say that if they were included, it would triple the total casualty count. The Pentagon claims that until "NOW"'s (Bill Moyers' American PBS-TV program) request, it hadn't been asked for those numbers. But, critics say these often debilitating injuries are not being reported in order to keep Americans from getting a clear picture of the human cost of war. NOW's Michele Mitchell profiles some of these soldiers who may spend the rest of their lives scarred and disabled, but whose sacrifices are not being counted by the nation they served.

Some watchdog groups suggest that even the combat casualty numbers for Operation Iraqi Freedom released by the Department of Defense are not fully accurate. Journalists like those at "NOW" have had a hard time tracking down numbers for non-combat wounded. Indeed, the detailed wounded "Military Wounded in Action" reports released by the Department of Defense Directorate of Information Operations have a section labeled for non-hostile casualties which has been left blank. (See the report for Operation Iraqi Freedom since May 1, 2004, PDF)

Non-combat deaths have been counted by federal government for many of America's wars. In some instances, non-combat fatalities far outstripped combat deaths. For example, in the chaos of the American Civil war, 184,594 died on both sides from combat, 373,458 additional people lost their lives to disease, malnutrition and accident. In the Mexican-American War fully ten times as many soldiers died of non-combat causes, mostly disease, as died in battle. In the first Gulf War, battle deaths were only 148, non-battle deaths in the war theater reached 235 and non-battle non-theater deaths totalled 914. As figures for wounded historically outstrip those killed, some say the missing non-combat wounded numbers may indeed be much higher than the casuality totals now tracked.

Read the whole article on PBS/NOW with Bill Moyers:

http://www.pbs.org/now/society/casualties.html

[Some of non-hostile casualties include post-traumatic stress disorder suicides (in Iraq or after returning back home); so-called "friendly fire" accidents/deaths; so-called 'depleted' uranium and other toxic exposure illnesses or later cancer deaths; non-combat military occupational hazard casualties/deaths; "vehicle accidents" (typically a euphemism for roadside bombing, RPG, or gunfire forced vehicle accident casualties/deaths); accidental weapons discharge casualties/deaths; time-lingered combat deaths back on American soil; various incapcitating environmental illnesses (typically from working in unaccustomed intense desert heat); etc.]

Botie

CALENDAR OF U.S. MILITARY DEAD IN IRAQI WAR

15.09.2004 22:22

YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE!: AN EXCELLENT SOURCE!

A VERY ELABORATE U.S. CASUALTY CALENDAR AND DETAILED CALENDAR TIME LINE!

CALENDAR OF U.S. MILITARY DEAD DURING IRAQI WAR:

http://cryptome.org/mil-dead-iqw.htm

Runs a calendar of US Military dead whose most recent edition listed as
"Updated 10 September 2004. Total 1,039 US Dead"

(More soldiers have been killed since then, with, of course, many more Iraqi civilians killed. Also, U.S. bombing has all but destroyed certain smaller cities, like Najaf, outside of Bagdad, or has made them virtually uninhabitable to normal life. And the U.S. is still trying to steal the oil -- but the Iraqi resistance won't let the U.S. do that easily. The corporate media continues to lie to us, wherever they can get away with it, about U.S. military "pinprick bombing" and American soldiers on "a noble cause". The U.S. made the mistake of thinking that the U.S. military-occupied Iraqi people were just like the, by comparison, virtually unarmed Palestinians. NOW WAR AIN'T *FUN* ANYMORE for the U.S.!)