Monday, December 1, 2003

Attention To The Wounded FEATURED ARTICLES - Iraq war creates new generation of wounded vets - Toll on U.S. troops in Iraq grows as wounded rolls approach 10,000 QUOTE OF THE DAY "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." - - Rosa Parks KNOW YOUR HISTORY - DECEMBER 1st 1955 -- Rosa Parks, an African American, gets busted, refusing to give her bus seat in front to a white man & sit in the back, in Montgomery, Alabama. Sets off a successful year-long bus boycott by blacks & sparks the Civil Rights movement of the next decade. http://www.e-portals.org/Parks 1966 -- US: Comedian Dick Gregory is convicted in Olympia, Washington, for his participation in Native American fishing rights protests. http://www.dickgregory.com/dick/_TOC.html RHINO HERE: According to the Pentagon, nearly 10,000 of "our troops," the equivalent of one Army division, has been killed, injured or become ill enough to evacuate out of Iraq. While the Pentagon regularly announces those killed in action, information about the injured troops is scant, and photo ops are not provided, with the injured usually arriving into air bases, unannounced, at night & out of camera shot. Here are a couple of articles written on the subject. Support the troops - Bring Them Home! Iraq war creates new generation of wounded vets Toll not widely known: 2,094 injured in action BY KEN DILANIAN, KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS, November 27, 2003 LANDSTUHL, Germany -- Army Spc. Jason Gunn doesn't recall hearing the explosion. "Everything was just smoky. I looked at myself -- I was still smoking. There was blood all over the place, and I just thought, you know . . . I thought I was going to die," Gunn, 24, recalled from his hospital bed in Germany last week, after being evacuated from Baghdad and joining the growing list of soldiers wounded in action. According to the Pentagon, 2,094 U.S. soldiers have been wounded by hostile acts in Iraq, including more than 1,200 hurt after May 1, when major combat operations were declared over. Although that number is small compared with the number wounded in, say, Vietnam, it's growing by about 10 a day, meaning that thousands more could be injured before the U.S. occupation of Iraq ends. The Pentagon regularly announces soldiers' deaths, but it rarely identifies the injured, who often arrive in the United States at night and out of sight of news cameras. This new generation of disabled veterans promises to be among the painful, expensive legacies of the Iraq war, one that hasn't received much attention... MORE: http://www.freep.com/news/nw/iraq27_20031127.htm 7:25:18 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Toll on U.S. troops in Iraq grows as wounded rolls approach 10,000 Toll on U.S. troops in Iraq grows as wounded rolls approach 10,000 BY ROGER ROY, The Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 28, 2003 ORLANDO, Fla. - (KRT) - Nearly 10,000 U.S. troops have been killed, wounded, injured or become ill enough to require evacuation from Iraq since the war began, the equivalent of almost one Army division, according to the Pentagon. Unlike the more than 2,800 American fighting men and women logged by the Defense Department as killed and wounded by weapons in Iraq, the numbers of injured and sick have been more difficult to track, leading critics to accuse the military of under-reporting casualty numbers. Military officials deny they are fudging the numbers. But the latest figures show that 9,675 U.S. troops have been killed, wounded, injured such as in accidents, or become sick enough to require airlifting out of Iraq. "I don't think even that is the whole story," said Nancy Lessin of Boston, the mother of an Iraq war veteran and co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, a group opposed to the war in Iraq. "We really think there's an effort to hide the true cost in life, limb and the mental health of our soldiers," Lessin said. "There's a larger picture here of really trying to hide and obfuscate what's going on, and the wounded and injured are part of it." The number of sick and injured is almost certainly substantially higher, because the figures provided by the military last week include totals only through Oct. 30. http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/7368173.htm "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:30:15 AM    comment

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