Associated Press serves as a cover-up for U.S. losses
undercounting US casualties in Iraq


Global Research, March 26, 2006

Despite daily reports about mounting anti-occupation attacks in Iraq, Americans hear very little from mainstream media about the most basic facts of what’s going there.

The Associated Press, among other news agencies, undercounts casualties as part of the Bush administration’s effort to hide the true costs of the war.

Since the beginning of March 2003 invasion of Iraq, AP, an American news agency, and the world's largest such organization, has continuously failed to give the true account of U.S. casualties in Iraq, as it would tarnish the image of the Bush administration which insists that the American invaders are achieving great successes in the war torn country and that the security situation there is under the strict control of the occupation authority.

Relying on accounts from a few Iraqi hospitals and the U.S. military, the AP, a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers and broadcast stations in the United States, who both contribute stories to it and use material written by its staffers (Wikipedia), claims that only 2,314 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of Iraq war in March 2003, echoing accounts released by the Pentagon, which refuses to give details concerning such accounts.

The U.S. Department of Defense claims that the total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq through Tuesday, March 21 since the start of the war on March 19, 2003, was 2,319.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... cleId=2172

As of 13th May 2006, the U.S. military states its casualties as 2,436 deaths of US soldiers and 17,648 injured. These very precise figures are updated daily. The problem with these statistics is that they are misleading and wrong and deliberately so. To arrive at these figures, the following deaths and casualties are excluded:

• Soldiers killed or injured in any other way other than a direct bullet or bomb. In other words, if a pilot or driver crashes because he had to evade a missile or bomb, it would not be counted as a death.

• The dying and critically wounded are listed as en route to military hospitals outside of the country and not reported on the daily postings. This means a soldier who was shot and/or wounded but died on a flight to a U.S. military hospital would not be counted.

• Anyone who dies in hospital or a U.S. military base.

• Anyone who suffers from severe mental illnesses as a direct result of the war. This category includes those who are medically diagnosed as depressed and/or suicidal.

• Anyone who is seemingly not seriously hurt at the time of a bombing or battle but who has long term physical or mental problems as a result. The most common example of this are soldiers who survive a road side bomb but who suffer long term brain damage.

• Soldiers in the U.S. Army who are not U.S. citizens. These are commonly citizens of poor South and Central American countries who are persuaded to fight in the hope of U.S. citizenship after years of risking their lives.

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11372

There are other links HERE

I think this type of deceptive reporting is one of the reasons many Americans feel somewhat detached from this particular war...and the wounded arriving back home aren't given much coverage, either.

Awesome, thanks for the link, Catherine. I knew I had read stuff that said this, but then struggled to remember where.

DO.g's did a spectacular job of coming up with all of that info..and I think it certainly deserves more attention. Thanks for starting this thread...and I also posted a link in your reply to Proud Liberal in the History Corner.