[extropy-chat] IRAQ: Weapons pipeline to Syria

Stephen Van_Sickle sjvans at ameritech.net
Mon Nov 1 04:38:26 UTC 2004


--- Spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:

> I noticed that *all* the deaths
> were included in the 1100 number, even those that
> died of natural causes in Iraq, the suicides, the
> auto accidents, the accidental shootings, the
> traditional
> fights between soldiers, etc.  

The 1100 number is for those who are designated Killed
in Action.  Traditionally, the standards have been
pretty liberal, and include accidents of most kinds in
a combat zone, as well as most suicides, since KIA
status carries much better benefits for next of kin. 
I understand it is not unheard of for reports to be
fudged a bit if there is some question because of this
(one story I've heard involves a Saigon brothel...no
doubt there is more than one name with a similar story
on the Wall). 

> Looks like as many as a 
> quarter of these deaths might as easily have
> happened had 
> they stayed home.  

Not really.  Accident rates do way up in a combat
zone.  For instance, it is almost impossible to get
soldiers to wear seatbelts, since they (probably
correctly) judge the risk of not being able to bail
out quickly a greater danger than traffic accident.  

> I guess suicides might be a grey
> area:
> perhaps they were called to active duty, were taken
> away from a shaky marriage, they got a dear John or
> Jane letter, shot selves in their dispair.  

I have heard that to be considered KIA, a military
psych has to investigate and rule the suicide the
result of combat fatigue or something similar, but
that they grasp the barest straw to make that happen,
for the benefits reason stated above.

> There were 
> cases of leukemia and cancer that were apparently 
> unrelated to being in the military.

I would be surprised if that was included in the
official KIA list.  

> Has anyone seen an estimate of these statistics?  

I don't know about Iragis, but there is a pretty good
breakdown here:

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=403&issue_id=35

It is a Quaker organization, so I doubt they have much
incentive to minimize things.

steve



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