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A Real Hero
Withstanding peer pressure:
“Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. .."
Sad that she couldn’t take it.
“But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle”
U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques
fromp counterpunch – i imagine not an exhaustive count)
Nearly 50,000 American Casualties
The US Body Count in Iraq: an Analysis of Who is Dying and How
By WINSLOW T. WHEELER
In the month of October 2006, 104 Americans in uniform died in the war in Iraq. That makes this October the fourth most deadly month in Iraq for Americans since the war began in March 2003. (In April 2004, 135 Americans were killed; in November 2004 there were 137 killed; and in January 2005, it was 107). While it is impersonal to manipulate the statistics, it is also informative.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has made available significant data on the dead and wounded from the war. Among others, two particularly useful entities have analyzed DOD’s and other data to help us understand the numbers. One is the website for the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count; another is a study released last August by the Population Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania: “Mortality of American Troops in Iraq.” The material below summaries their data (and provides additional links to them).
Total Dead
As of Nov. 1, 2006, 2,817 Americans have died in Iraq of all causes; 239 military personnel have been killed from other countries (U.K.: 120; “other:” 119), for a grand total of 3,055 casualties from the coalition forces. (See these and more data at http://icasualties.org/oif/
The data at http://www.icasualties.org for American military fatalities include:
2,268 deaths from hostile fire, which occurs in many forms; and 550 non-combat deaths.
Among the deaths resulting from hostile fire:
improvised explosive devices (IEDs) caused at least 998, or 35 percent of all deaths, which exceeds all other causes.
Although the other subcategories at http://www.icasulaties.org includes some causes listed more than once and other poorly organized or unexplained entries (from what DOD appears to have provided), other hostile fire causes attributed in the data include:
unspecified hostile fire: 425, or 15 percent;
small arms fire: 272, or 10 percent;
mortar attacks: 85, or 3 percent;
rocket propelled grenades (RPGs): 104, or 4 percent;
cars bombs: 76, or 3 percent;
suicide car bombs: 54, or 2 percent;
other suicide bombers: 30, or 1 percent.
The leading cause of non-hostile deaths were vehicle accidents (201 deaths, or 7 percent of the total). Other causes included:
helicopter accidents: 74, or 3 percent;
weapon accidents: 76, or 3 percent.
“friendly fire:” 8, or 0.3 percent;
homicides: 7, or 0.2 percent; and
suicides: 3, or 0.1 percent.
(See various details at http://icasualties.org/oif/Stats.aspx.)
Wounded: Contrary to the approximate 20,000 wounded that the press typically reports, the http://www.icasualties.org website reports the following:
14,414 wounded–no medical air transport required;
6,273 wounded–medical air transport required;
6,430 non-hostile injuries–medical air transport required;
17,662 diseases–medical air transport required.
Assuming medical air transport is an indicator of serious wounds, injuries, or sickness, these data can also be described as follows:
6,273 seriously wounded;
6,430 seriously injured in non-hostile events (e.g. vehicle accidents)
17,662 seriously ill (e.g. serious heat prostration)
A total of 30,365 seriously wounded, injured, or sick–all causes.
For those not receiving medical air transport:
14,414 wounded who could be treated without air evacuation.
Grand Total: 44,779. (See http://www.icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx.)
Thus, counting all forms of wounds, injuries, and illness, the total “casualties” are more than twice the number typically reported in the press.
Branch of Service Fatalities
The distribution of U.S. fatalities by branch of service, as reported by http://www.icasualties.org, is as follows:
Army (active duty): 1,435
Marines (active duty): 712
Army National Guard: 377
Army Reserve: 103
Marine Reserve: 97
Navy: 46
Air Force: 25
Navy Reserve: 13
Coast Guard: 1
Air National Guard: 1
Department of the Army: 4
Department of the Air Force: 2
Department of Defense: 1
(See http://www.icasualties.org/oif/Service.aspx.)
Using data for the period between March 21, 2003, and March 31, 2006, the University of Pennsylvania study provides some analysis of these numbers, as follows:
Compared to the war in Vietnam, the chances U.S. military personnel will be killed in Iraq are significantly lower. With 56,838 deaths over a period of 2,608,650 “person-years of exposure,” the Vietnam “death rate” was 21.8 per 1,000, compared to 3.9 for Iraq. Vietnam was 5.6 times more deadly for deployed troops as Iraq. Reasons cited in the study for the difference are improvements in military medicine, faster evacuation to closer medical care, and more and better body armor. (It is also possible–but not reported in the study–that the nature of the combat in Vietnam was different–and perhaps more lethal. For example, U.S. combat training may now be better, or the enemy may have been more dangerous.)
The number of deaths compared to the number wounded was also higher in Vietnam; 0.24 in Vietnam; 0.13 in Iraq, presumably for the same reasons the study articulated.
The death rates for branch of service in Iraq also vary considerably:
the risk of death is greatest in Iraq for Marines (both active and reserve) at 8.5 per 1,000;
Army (active and reserve) personnel are experiencing 3.4 deaths per 1,000 deployed;
Navy personnel are less exposed at a rate of 0.83;
Air Force personnel are the least exposed at a rate of 0.4.
The average death rate across all services is 3.9.
Put another way, the chance of a deployed armed services member dying in Iraq is one out of every 255 per year.
The comparable death rate for military age civilian males in the U.S. is 1.5 per 1,000, about 40 percent less than that of military personnel in Iraq.
Rank
Generals and admirals in Iraq are safer than their age cohort is in America; none have died in Iraq. However:
30 majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels have died;
156 lieutenants and captains have died;
the vast majority of the dead are:
sergeants (738 dead); and
privates, corporals, and specialists (1,359 dead).
(See the absolute data for all ranks)
The University of Pennsylvania study assessed the relative risk:
Army and Marine enlisted personnel have 40 percent and 36 percent higher mortality than all officers, respectively.
However, Army and Marine lieutenants, who typically lead combat patrols, have a higher mortality rate than more senior officers and enlisted personnel; Army and Marine lieutenants have a mortality rate 19 percent and 11 percent higher, respectively, than all personnel in their respective branches of service.
Gender
All but 64 of the deaths in Iraq have been males. With women not permitted to hold positions primarily intended for combat, their mortality is 5.5 times less that of males.
Race and Ethnicity
The University of Pennsylvania study reports that DOD’s data do not make analysis of mortality across race and ethnicity easy; the study did, however, find that:
Hispanics have a mortality rate 21 percent higher than non-Hispanics;
blacks have a mortality rate about 60 percent that of whites, and less than 50 percent the rate of “other” ethnicities (American Indian, others natives, and “multi-race.”)
The study did not explain the higher Hispanic mortality rate but did explain the lower mortality rate for black personnel as a result of higher representation in categories with less exposure to combat, such as the female gender and perhaps technical or support services.
Other Categories
Icasualties.org reports a “partial list” of 367 civilian contractors from all non-Iraqi nationalities as fatalities and 116 fatalities among journalists from all nations.
As Republican and Democratic candidates for elective office position themselves on the politics of the war in Iraq for advantage in the upcoming congressional elections, it is useful to inform ourselves about who and how many are experiencing the real risks. Currently, the politicians are waiting for a more favorable environment after the elections to sort out what they are actually going to do, if anything, about the war; meanwhile, the military personnel in Iraq–all of them–have more important things to worry about.
Winslow T. Wheeler is the Director of the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information and author of The Wastrels of Defense. Over 31 years, he worked for US Senators from both political parties and the Government Accountability Office on national security issues. He can be contacted at: winslowwheeler@comcast.net.
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 2 2006 19:43 utc | 4
Why didn’t she just use her service pistol? Definitely a lot easier than maneuvering a rifle into position.
I agree, it sounds fishy. Another fishy suicide/accidental death story took place at Guantanamo in 2002. Here’s the story. Note that the family said he was afraid of heights and the water. There’s a bit more at the link in general about Gitmo during that period:
November 6, 2002
THE NATION
U.S. Soldier’s Disappearance Surrounded by Mystery
The Pentagon says a Guantanamo Bay guard died accidentally. His family is skeptical.
By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer
A mysterious disappearance has focused attention on a largely anonymous group: the nearly 2,000 military police officers and other soldiers dispatched to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to guard roughly 625 prisoners from the war in Afghanistan.
Many are Army National Guardsmen and reservists. And as they return home, they tell of a safe, almost serene environment with little trouble from prisoners — a not-so-bad assignment that has made them feel useful in the war on terrorism.
But it is still a jail, and prisoners and guards alike know there is no real escape from the 45-square-mile base that the U.S. leases from Cuba. A high-wire fence with Cuban sentries borders one flank of the installation, the crystal-blue Caribbean waters the other.
Perhaps no other prison in the world is as tightly controlled as the makeshift compound called Camp Delta. Yet the military cannot explain how one of its own guards vanished.
Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Foraker, a National Guardsman who would be returning to his wife and two young daughters in Ohio about now, was last seen on the base with a flashlight in hand in the early hours of Sept. 24. A thin man with a slight mustache, Foraker left no note behind when he left his barracks at 1:30 a.m. and, ostensibly, headed out for some exercise on his night off. Authorities later found his clothes, wallet and Army ID neatly folded in a rock crevice on a 20-foot cliff overlooking the water. The 31-year-old Persian Gulf War veteran was gone.
After describing his status for several weeks as “whereabouts unknown,” the Pentagon last week declared him “missing, presumed dead.” Foraker “most likely died of accidental causes in the waters off Guantanamo Bay,” the Pentagon concluded.
But no body has been found, and the Army’s initial reluctance to let Foraker’s wife visit the base — and his family’s knowledge of Ryan — make them suspicious of the official explanation.
Carl J. Foraker believes his son is still alive, that he came upon something “he was not supposed to see” on the base, and now is being held incommunicado. “I’ve always heard how secure it is down there, but evidently it’s not, or they would find my son,” he said.
His wife theorizes he might have been abducted. “He was due to come home in mid-November,” said Angela Foraker of Logan, Ohio. “I don’t believe he would have done anything stupid to jeopardize coming home.”
He was afraid of water and heights, so why was he ranging atop that beachside cliff? “His mother used to take him to the pool when he was child, but he was afraid of the water,” his father said.
But Army officials say Foraker had gone snorkeling with fellow soldiers on occasion, and in the absence of any other explanation, they assume he died accidentally in the water. Neither the Pentagon nor the family suspects suicide.
“The findings and the investigation concluded there was no evidence of foul play,” said Army Lt. Col. Ryan Yantis at the Pentagon.
“It is improbable that he left the island via boat, air or land. He was a good soldier, and it’s unlikely he went AWOL. We confirmed he did not enter the country of Cuba…. This was a good soldier. A good troop. He was respected,” Yantis said. “And we do not like leaving people behind.”
Under the circumstances at Guantanamo Bay, a guard’s disappearance is ironic.
Foraker was part of a mission so intense that guards practically monitor every time a detainee swats a fly in his wire-cage cell under the harsh tropical sun. Even the wild iguanas, a protected species, are kept from harm’s way, with large fines for anyone who even accidentally hits one of the large lizards on the roadway.
The guards and military police typically spend their days and evenings in groups — working one of three shifts at Camp Delta and, during their off hours, relaxing at the base bowling alley, the outdoor theater or on a boat in the bay, deep-sea fishing.
“I think it was probably accidental,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond Funaro, who until this month supervised 1,600 military police and guardsmen at “Gitmo” before returning to his Rhode Island National Guard unit. “I think he just went in for a swim and never made it out.”
Foraker came home from the Gulf War and drove a truck for a pipeline company while remaining an Army reservist. After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, he was called back to active duty…
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/news/soldier-disappearance-mystery.htm
Posted by: Ensley | Nov 2 2006 20:09 utc | 5
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