Vets group: DoD skews number of wounded

[unhappycamper]

Vets group: DoD skews number of wounded
By Bradley Brooks - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 7, 2008 12:36:44 EST

BAGHDAD — The number of wounded soldiers has become a hallmark of the nearly 5-year-old Iraq war, pointing to both the use of roadside bombs as the extremists’ weapon of choice and advances in battlefield medicine to save lives.

About 15 soldiers are wounded for every fatality, compared with 2.6 per death in Vietnam and 2.8 in Korea.

But with those saved soldiers comes a financial price — one veterans groups and others claim the government is unwilling to pay.

Those critics also say that the tens of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq are part of a political numbers game, one they say undermines the medical system meant to care for them.

The most frequently cited figure is the 29,320 soldiers wounded in action in Iraq as of Thursday. But there have been 31,325 others treated for non-combat injuries and illness as of March 1.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_wounded_030608/

[fed-up]

1. and last year's numbers

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2910973&page=1
An Unforeseen Cost of War
Feb. 28, 2007
..snip

"What you have are two sets of books," said Paul
Sullivan, a spokesman for Veterans for America. (now
with Veterans for Common Sense)


"The Department Of Defense saying that there's 23,000
wounded from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the
Department Of Veterans Affairs is actually treating
205,000 veterans from these two wars," Sullivan said.


The VA contends that the 205,000 is for treating all
veterans, including the standard care that returning
soldiers are allowed to receive for life.


However, by its estimates, 73,000 soldiers returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered from some kind
of brain injury or mental disorder.

..snip