Soldier dies of heat stroke, S. central Iraq, 118F in shade. MSNBC tv

[karlschneider]

I don't think this is a dupe, couldn't find it.

[osaMABUSh]

1. Can't be the first US victim of heat stroke

anybody compiling GI casualties of combat, accident, illness, heat stroke, suicide?

[dflprincess]

25. No doubt Norm Coleman would be quick to point out

that more people die of heat stroke in Texas and Ariziona that have died of it in Iraq.

see this post for Normie's stupid remarks on casualties in Iraq.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=151966&mesg_id=151966

NBC news did a story tonight on how much water is being shipped in and how much the troops are being told to drink (way more than the standard 64 ounces a day). Apparently, it was bogus. I wonder if NBC is lying or being lied to.

[tedoll78]

2. I don't remember where I read this,

but many of our soldiers in the 124 degree heat are down to rations of 3 liters of water per day. Absolutely dispicable.

[Cha]

3. What happened to the water in Iraq and why can't

the military ship water in if there is a problem with the supply there?

And what about the Iraqis and their getting water for themselves to drink?

Water as we know is the most important element after AIR!

[treepig]

5. maybe your post was meant to be entirely rhetorical

but if not, the reason the military can't ship in water is because it's not their job. rumsfeld hired corporations(halliburton?) to provide these support services (which they're not) - there was a thread on this topic floating around recently if somebody'd be kind enough to provide the link (i can't find it right now)

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Now this is interesting...

If the government failed to bring in supplies, they would be immune to lawsuits, but since the responsibility is privatized, surely the parents of this soldier can gather the necessary information and file against the private company that caused the shortage?

[aquart]

12. Oooooooh, I like it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. Negative.

Boosh signed an Exec. Order releasing those companies from liability.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Was it retroactive?

And doesn't the Congress also have to sign off on it?

[aquart]

11. Kellogg, Brown and Root (Halliburton)

Our soldiers are hungry and thirsty and Cheney's getting rich on it.

[NNN0LHI]

13. Hard to order civilians into a war zone when you need them n/t

[starroute]

14. A couple of different factors

One, as you say, is the privatization of supplies. When the actual fighting started and the insurance for employees entering the war zone jumped by 300-400 percent, the companies that had contracted to supply the troops got very nervous about actually following through. It's not just the bottled water that hasn't shown up (local water not being safe to drink) -- it's also the air conditioners and the mosquito netting and all the other necessities for life in Iraq that are sitting in warehouses somewhere.

The story originally appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, but at the moment it seems easiest to find at Rense: http://www.rense.com/general39/waron.htm

The second factor, which I've seen mentioned just recently (I'm not sure where), is that our supply convoys are increasingly coming under attack. Our government may grudgingly admit that Americans are being killed and wounded by guerrilla activity -- but they're still trying to pitch it as random potshots by scattered opposition. In fact, that opposition appears to be more and more coordinated, and is tightly focused on sensitive areas, such as the highly vulnerable route from central Baghdad to the airport.

As with so much in this administration, the military seems quite willing to be accused of generalized incompetence whenever something goes wrong. The deeper causes of graft and corruption get mentioned only around the edges. And the still deeper possibility that Americans might not be the masters of all situations, and that other people might be able to take advantage of our weaknesses and cause us genuine pain, is completely taboo.

[wtmusic]

15. thanks, zidz, let's not forget

about the Iraqis and the thousands of kids who supposedly went into the summer with cholera...

not enough news coming out. Don't want to hear about all the deaths six months from now.

[diamond14]

22. water is NOT an element, it's a molecule...H2O, composed of two

elements to make a molecule..Hydrogen and Oxygen...

But you are absolutely correct, you cannot live long without sufficient water...

there is also another issue...
if it's real hot...you sweat out "electrolytes", like Potassium and Sodium, and others...these elements are critical to ALL the chemical reactions in the body (like breathing, moving muscles, etc.)...so in extreme heat, with little water, a person can have an "electrolyte imbalance" (from sweat loss of electrolytes)....ALL the chemical reactions in the body then go horribly wrong and malfunction, without medical intervention, the person dies....

medical intervention is an IV with electrolytes flowing into the blood to correct the imbalance...this must be monitored carefully to bring the body chemical reactions back to normal....

OUR soldiers MUST have sufficient water, as well as "electrolyte packages", which contain Potassium and Sodium salts to be mixed with water and drink regularly...this treatment of OUR troops is bad...perhaps it's Haliburton contractors...it's a real nightmare...BRING OUR TROOPS HOME, NOW !

BOOT bush* in 2004

on edit: "air" is not an element either....air is mostly the molecule N2 (two Nitrogen elements together), the molecule O2 (two Oxygen elements together), and a few more, like the molecule H2 (two Hydrogen elements together, He (helium, that's an element all by itself)....in summary, "air" is a mixture of molecules and elements...

[karlschneider]

27. Not to disagree with you, but there are few free radicals in either air or

water. "air" is composed of compounds of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon as well. And Sulphur too. Pretty much anything that can exist as a gas can be found in the gases we breathe in more or less concentration. Including of course, as you mention, small amounts of the noble gases.

And now I'm thinking I just said all that by way of idiotic pedantism.
:eyes:
Sorry...

[diamond14]

31. "air" is MOSTLY oxygen and nitrogen, and the rest of my

remarks were intended to cover all the other molecules and elements in air...BTW, "free radicals" like O3 are actually molecules...

although I always appreciate your comments, karlschneider, especially your idiotic pedantism...I was trying to hone my remarks relative to a person who seemed to need further GENERAL information on elements, molecules and stuff like that....

IMHO, it was beyond this arena to list the complexities of 'free radicals' in air...

I HOPE that not "anything that can exist as a gas can be found in the gases we breathe"...because there are some awful gases created by our military that are NOT needed in the air we breathe...

my own preferences in atmospheric chemistry involve SMOG...

RH + OH --> R* + H2O
(NO3) (HNO3)

R + O2 --> RO2

RO2 + NO --> RO + NO2*

(* is the radical)

RO2 + HO2 --> ROOH + O2

ROOH + hv --> RO + OH

ROOH + HSO3- --> HSO4- + ROH


Perhaps one day, when I have more time, we can engage in a series of one-electron transfers

Initiation
Propagation
Oxidation
Termination

[karlschneider]

32. That would be fine. :-) I started to, and almost did abandon that post.

You are correct and I am desiccated with mortification. ;-)

[diamond14]

33. hee hee...that's a good one....

"desiccated with mortification"


:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

:nuke:

:nuke:

:nuke:


I'm SO SORRY...I didn't mean to hurt you....

:evilfrown:

[Gloria]

29. Actually, it might be worse....2, 2-liter bottles a day for drinking AND

hygiene!@! I posted at article a few weeks ago about how Japan would send water treatment equipment along with some troops to Iraq...their equipment is the best. However, they are just now only "scoping out" the possible danger....so the water equipment won't be getting there anytime soon.

It's supposed to supply troops and civilians...everyone is suffering.

[leftchick]

4. and in the fuzzy math calculations of the media, his death won't count

because it was not "in combat"... shameful!! I feel so bad for the families of these soldiers.... :grr:

[FubarFly]

7. ALL military deaths in a combat zone are combat related.

The media has an obligation to remember the sacrifice each of our fallen troops has made. Denigrating the troops who fight for our freedom is a far worse offense than desecrating the flag that only symbolizes it. As
long as the coffin is draped with a pristinely folded, Constitutionally protected flag, it doesn't matter how the mangled soldier inside of it died. This is Republican-led patriotism at its finest. Apparantly our flag is far more important than the men and women dying to defend it. The US media has been whore-heartedly reinforcing this notion every day.
I will always love America, but my disgust for certain Americans knows no bounds.

[dflprincess]

24. I don't get it

My dad was classed as combat injured veteran after he wrecked his knee playing baseball in a combat zone in the Pacific (not bad enough to send him home - but it did bother him the rest of his life). He was given a 10% permanent, partial disablilty and got a check from the VA every month for the rest of his life. In fairness to the old man, he was embarassed being classed this way and only members of the family knew about it.

[diamond14]

26. My dad got a purple heart because he tripped and broke his

big toe in England, while stationed there....they taped it up and he went on flying his bomber, it healed OK...my dad was also a bit embarrassed about getting a purple heart for his own goof-up...considering what happened to others...

IMHO, it's very important that ALL deaths in a combat zone be classified as COMBAT...my cousin was killed in Vietnam, and we were comforted by the idea that he did his duty honorably and died fighting for OUR country, he was awarded a purple heart and a silver star after he died...the horror for military families to get a message: your kid flipped a vehicle while driving too fast, no combat involved, just a goof-off....or your kid fell off a building, no combat involved, just a good-off...it would be comforting to get a message: your kid died in combat operations in Iraqi Freedom....

why not give OUR soldiers families at least that little comfort...

instead, the shrub considers his image more important...sick...

[susu369]

8. Here is a link

letters to Stars and Stripes:

http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=16878

Heartbreaking and infuriating - as bu$h* throws a barbecue for his fat cats on Saturday, our troops are suffering.

[SoCalDem]

34. An apt poster.. pic of Bush-B-Que

Bush Barbeques
while our troops
"Barbeque"...
and DIE
from lack of
WATER..

[NNN0LHI]

9. Link with a mention of this in another Reuters story

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/4909566.htm

Iraqis riot in Basra, one protester dead

<snip>Two U.S. soldiers and a journalist were wounded in a grenade attack in Baghdad on Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman said. Al Jazeera television said one of its cameramen was hurt along with U.S. soldiers when a grenade was thrown at a U.S. patrol from an upper storey window at Baghdad University.

Further north, the U.S. spokesman said, two soldiers were wounded in a bomb attack. On a road near Tikrit, Saddam's home town 170 km (110 miles) north of the capital, a Reuters correspondent saw a wrecked American truck beside a crater which a soldier at the scene said was caused by a mine.

In the western town of Hit, relatives of two men buried on Sunday said they were shot by U.S. troops the day before.

A soldier died of apparent heat stress while riding in a convoy north of Ad Diwaniyah, which lies about 75 miles south of the capital, the U.S. military said.

more

[karlschneider]

10. You know, I don't recall hearing any reports of soldiers dying -later-

from the reported 'injuries'...have you?

[Karenina]

20. Not a one.

.

[bluedog]

16. send bush over

he seems to enjoy running in 100 plus degrees....hell, he even has a club..where if you make it you get a t shit.....these men have no choice but to be in the heat in Iraq......bushs runners do.......pack his ass up in full gear and let him take the place of just one of these men!!!!!!

[Raenelle]

17. Non-combat related. Doesn't count.

I'm surprised it is even being reported.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

21. I Respectfully Disagree

Of the approximately 618,000 Americans who died in the Civil War, the Union suffered 110,070 battle deaths and 250,152 from disease: total 360,222. The Confederates suffered approximately 94,000 battle deaths, with 164,000 additional deaths from disease: Total 258,000. The usual casualties figure of approximately 620,000 total dead in that war is the one seen over-and-over in history books.

http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm

Now, the Bush administration, the Pentagon, and the media are trying to rewrite history, by pretending that soldiers dying from falls, equipment malfunctions, disease, or the heat are not really casualties of war. It's true that deaths from dysentery and typhoid fever in the Civil War were quite high because of special circumstances, including primitive health care in those days. In the same way, the war in Iraq involves special circumstances, namely very poor conditions being provided to our troops by our own government, with large amounts of supplies and replacement parts lying undelivered because private contractors don't even want to enter the theater of war, poor sanitation, along with the unusually high temperatures. The soldier who dies from faulty or broken down equipment, heatstroke or from disease IS a casualty of war, every bit as much as one dying from a bullet. Arguing to the contrary is obscene.

[DS1]

23. it was a commentary on our media

I'm positive the poster thinks that it does count.

The point is, you have to look for this information, because it's not being "reported".

[karlschneider]

28. Disagreement is expected here. Welcome to DU!

:D

[LibInternationalist]

30. EVERYbody write your congresspersons

[dodger2371]

35. They don't have to shoot just let the sun do it

I hope these commanders realize these are men not machines