lot more died in Gulf War I then reported - 8,013 (reported in '02)

[donsu]

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/021804Kaminski/021804kaminski.html

Do you remember how many U.S. soldiers died in the first Gulf War? On television at the time, they told you it was around 64. Later, as news agencies recalculated the total from a variety of sources, it became 146. But now, some 13 years later, according to the Veterans Administration itself, the first Gulf War death toll among U.S. troops who served there stands at 8,013! And this a figure from a 2002 report.

I was reminded of this hideous numerical progression recently when I read the Pentagon's report listing 534 American military fatalities as of Feb. 1, 2004. Almost immediately after seeing that, I read the story by Australian investigator Joe Vialls saying the American combat death toll from Iraq was actually 1,188.

-snip-

Private email communications I have had with some enlisted men in the military have painted a really grim picture. Americans are now in a minority in the U.S. Army, according to these messages. A majority of our troops are now green card soldiers, foreign nationals who have immigrated to the States and joined the military in order to get their citizenship, if they can live through the experience. And they are not especially eager to uphold esprit de corps, or fulfill any mission they might be given, only to get that piece of paper.

But even worse that that—and what ordinary soldiers and sailors would consider the worst possible fate to befall them—is that many career military personnel who have served their 20 years in order to get their pensions, with which to live out their days with a comfortable financial anchor, are now prevented from going home because top military officials insist they can't afford to lose them.
-snip-
--------------------

John Kaminski (an honorably discharged Navy veteran whose record of service can actually be produced, although he was busted for putting up peace signs on his ship during Vietnam) is the author of "America's Autopsy Report," a collection of his Internet essays published by Dandelion Books and featured on hundreds of websites around the world.

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hhhmmmm, so by next Nov. our death toll will be around the 2000 mark -

[indepat]

1. Would not the issue be how those 8,013 deaths compare to how many deaths

would be expected from that universe of people using the standard mortality tables for the period of time in question? Do we have a life-expectancy expert in the house?

[RobertSeattle]

2. I'm not expert

But about 500K troops were in the Gulf War I theater. 8000 dead "now" - that 1.6%. Doesn't sound like a big deal to me - 2.4 Million Americans die every year.

[Pillowbiter]

3. I remeber GWI

GW1 the war, not GW1 the president, though they do go hand in hand.

Anyways, the news reports during the conflict had more freindly fire casualties than actual Iraqis causing any, and the number was way under 64 immediately at the end of it.

I would not be suprized to see it exponated by a factor of 8, conservatively speaking, said the liberal.

PB

[mobuto]

7. Who died?

These aren't random drones, these are people with families.

If appreciable numbers of soldiers disappeared without the government announcing what had happened, their families just might have said something. You think?

FYI, there were 147 battle-related US deaths and 145 non-battle-related deaths.

[terryg11]

4. I find it hard to believe

sorry, will read the report you provided and admit it's always possible that the truth never came out about the real numbers of US dead, being off by almost 8000 is pretty hard to believe

[camero]

5. Combat injuries may be at 11, 000

link: http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=654&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0&POSTNUKESID=fe3163a1e872793acf092b82cfaa8d37

[mobuto]

6. Um, no

If 8,013 people died in the first Gulf War, who were they? What were their names? The US announced every death of that war. Presumably if they didn't name somebody, that person's family would sort-of begin to wonder where they were. 7,850 soldiers disappeared?

Really?

What is this crap?