Department of Veterans Affairs Reports 73 THOUSAND U.S. Gulf War Deaths

[babylonsister]

Department of Veterans Affairs Reports 73 Thousand U.S. Gulf War Deaths
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2007-10-15 14:54. Media

By Clive Boustred, OpEdNews

More Gulf War Veterans have died than Vietnam Veterans: The Department of Veterans Affairs, May 2007, Gulf War Veterans Information System reports the following:

Total U.S. Military Gulf War Deaths: 73,846
– Deaths amongst Deployed: 17,847
– Deaths amongst Non-Deployed: 55,999

Total “Undiagnosed Illness” (UDX) claims: 14,874
Total number of disability claims filed: 1,620,906
- Disability Claims amongst Deployed: 407,911
- Disability Claims amongst Non-Deployed: 1,212,995

Percentage of combat troops that filed Disability Claims 36%

-Source: http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi/docs/GWVIS_May2007.pdf

NOTE: Soldiers, by nature, typically don’t complain. In other words, the real impact of those who are disabled from the US invasions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Nations, is not fully reflected in the official Veterans Affairs numbers. When soldiers are sent to murder women and children they tend to never be able to live normal lives there after.

How come the government numbers of 3,777 as of 9/7/7 are so low? The answer is simple, the government does not want the 73,000 dead to be compared to the 55,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam Iraq = Vietnam. What the government is doing is only counting the soldiers that die in action before they can get them into a helicopter or ambulance. Any soldier who is shot but they get into a helicopter before he dies is not counted.

73,000 dead amongst the U.S. soldiers for this scale operation using weapons of mass destruction is not high - we expect the great majority of U.S. soldiers who took part in the invasion of Iraq to die of uranium poisoning, which can take decades to kill.

From a victors perspective, above any major war in history, The Gulf War has taken the severest toll on soldiers.

more...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27714

[bdamomma]

1. we are nothing to this government, they lie to us about this

the number of dead, where is the outrage, this is truly disgusting.

[donsu]

2. thank you for coming through with the truthful stats

we should make all the candidates, both sides, talk about this

[wicket]

3. K & R

Another great post, thanks! :hi:

[Frustratedlady]

4. What else is new?

We don't have the correct counts on casualties in Iraq.

We don't have the correct counts on Iraqi deaths.

We don't have the correct dollar figures on the cost of the Iraq War.

We don't have the dollar figures on the amount of fraud in the Iraq War.

We don't have the answer to the lost guns and ammunition in Iraq.

We don't have the correct cost for reconstruction of Iraq.

We don't have the cost of the Blackwater-type protection.

The list goes on and on. What else is new?

K&R

[ISUGRADIA]

5. Thiese numbers include deaths from Gulf War 1 seventeen

years ago on. The 73,000 dead is not for Gulf War 2 only if you read the report.

And people do tend to die at some point in their lives so if anyone is to draw dramatic conclusions from these numbers you'd have to show that these vets died at a much greater rate than the general population in the last 17 years.

[karynnj]

10. good point - not doing that makes this estimate undefendible.

[donsu]

11. that point has already been proved - read some more articles

nt

[blogslut]

6. This is from GHWB's Gulf War?

?

[ISUGRADIA]

14. It appears to include numbers from 90-91 war vets and the

current conflict

[central scrutinizer]

7. If the US troops will die of uranium poisoning...

think how much worse it is for the Iraqis whose exposure will be much higher and for their whole lives, not just for s couple of years.

[donsu]

12. once you are poisoned, it doesn't go away your whole life

that life being shortened by DU

[Blackhatjack]

8. Depleted Uranium is why the Govt discharged so many returning Gulf War Vets...

It is hard to find the official numbers, but 'insiders' have reported that the fear of huge medical costs drove them to discharge soldiers.

[Dora]

9. I am not a statistician, but close reading is always important.

I would not be surprised to learn that actual mortality count is higher than DOD is telling us, but I recall this story, or one similar to it, was circulating earlier this year. These numbers do not reflect CURRENT gulf war theater deaths, but include ALL deaths inclusive of Gulf War I veterans, as well as deployed and non-deployed reservists (if I read it correctly). In other words, the 73,000 figure is a distortion of the facts (boldface is mine).


This footnote was copied from page 6 of the report:


2 These counts reflect raw data that has not been subjected to any statistical analysis nor has it been adjusted in any way to make it a mortality study. There has been no adjustment to account for age, gender, race, and other items required for a valid mortality study. In addition, the data will not reflect deaths that occurred after March 2007. The use of these data to draw conclusions regarding mortality rates will result in inaccurate conclusions. For analysis of Gulf War veteran mortality, see"Mortality among US Veterans of the Persian Gulf War: 7-Year Follow-up, "Han K. Kang and Tim A. Bullman, American Journal of Epidemiology, 2001,154(5): 399-405.

[NYVet]

13. This study covers deaths of veterans

from 1991 until now, and it covers veterans who have seperated from the service and those that are still in who have died from everything from muggings and car accidents, to heart attacks and electrocutions in the bath tub.

It also shows the death rate between servicemembers who were deployed to SE Asia versus those who were not not deployed to SE Asia for the first Gulf War.






This was also covered in a previous thread on DU that I can not find at this time.

[lovuian]

15. Now this is the Truth America's troops have been poisoned

by its own government when you sign up your expendable

its so sad

America's Empire has been destroyed by its corporations

[flashl]

16. Since day 5 of GW 2 ...

there have been persistent reports of under counting soldiers deaths. The articles from my archive are not readily available to me. A couple of years ago, methods of counting the Iraq dead was explained, it depends on WHERE the soldier die in theater. If a soldier's death did not occur in the "zone" established by DOD then it was not counted as an Iraq "war" death.

[Kurovski]

17. K&R. (nt)

[earth mom]

18. Another I or We told you so.

:cry:

[redacted]

19. K&R. (nt)