The number of American dead in Iraq, 1600, includes only those
Killed In Action (KIA). Body counts from the Vietnam war included a
second category that has been successfully hidden/ignored by the
DoD: Dead of Wounds (DOW). Put simplistically, the DOW category
includes all those who die "at a higher echelon of care" - which
means, pretty much, anyplace other than where they first fell,
whether it be on the stretcher in the vehicle evacuating them or in
the Iraq equivalent of a MASH unit.
My sources for this are GlobalSecurity.org (which also supplies the
"fine print" that allows the DoD to fiddle these numbers) as well
as Soldiers for the Truth (SFTT) at links below. Check it out.
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