While there are about 150,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq, there are more than 120,000 other men and women serving alongside the military, but drawing their paychecks through such Pentagon contractors as Halliburton, Blackwater, DynCorp, and Custer Battles.
These are hired hands, not soldiers, and mostly they lack the training, discipline, and equipment of the regular forces – yet they're thrown into the same deadly environment, getting shot, bombed, maimed, and killed. Yet, the Bush administration does not even count them. A spokesman coldly says: "There is no requirement for the U.S. government to track these numbers."
The Labor Department, which receivess workers compensation claims, has quietly recorded that at least 917 of these people have died in Bush's war. Another 12,000 have been wounded in battle or injured on the job. That's about one-third more causalities than the Bush administration has told us about – a hidden toll of this immoral war and occupation.
2007-06-20
07:00:34
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11 answers
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asked by
Richard V
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Other - Politics & Government