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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPentagon Erases Wounded U.S. Troops From Iran War Casualty List: "Definition of a Cover-up"
Amid a fragile ceasefire in the U.S. war on Iran, the Pentagon is playing a numbers game with American casualty statistics, adding and subtracting from the count as questions about the human toll mount.
On the day the ceasefire between the Trump administration and Iran took effect, the tally of U.S. dead and wounded was 385. Despite a pause in hostilities, the number had slowly risen to 428 on Monday, according to Pentagon statistics. Yet on Tuesday, the number of wounded-in-action troops declined by 15 troops without public comment from the War Department, dropping the total to 413. The count held steady on Wednesday, except for one public War Department tally that put the grand total of wounded and dead at 411.
The casualty conundrum came as President Donald Trump extended the truce with Iran on Tuesday just hours before it was set to expire.
Two Pentagon spokespersons said they were unable to field questions on the 15 casualties disappeared by the War Department on Tuesday, claiming only the duty officer could answer the question but that person was not at their desk. As soon as the duty officer comes back to their desk, I can get this to them, said one of them.
A day, and multiple follow-ups, later, The Intercept has yet to receive an explanation of why 15 wounded personnel were scrubbed from the War Departments casualty rolls.
more at:
The Intercept via Archive
https://archive.ph/58vtz#selection-541.9-541.100
efhmc
(16,841 posts)NEOH
(331 posts)I wonder what the difference between the actual vs the reported deaths of US Service Members is.
I will wager to say it's pretty substantial.
BidenRocks
(3,404 posts)Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley and Howard K Smith and Peter Jennings.
I learned not to trust our government.
WinstonSmith4740
(3,451 posts)I was visiting my aunt and uncle...Joe was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany at the time. High ranking Air Force. VietNam was in full force.
I remember him getting a phone call one evening, and got his end of the conversation.
"How many? And how many planes?" Then there was a string of profanity. When it was over, he turned to me and said, "We lost another 20 men and 5 planes today. But when it hits the news, it'll be 12 men and 2 planes. The American public HAS NO IDEA what our loses over there are."
Some things never change.