What You Don’t See Is Almost As Bad As What You Do See
The not so publicized cost of the war that you won’t see on all the rosy accounts of the recent events in the war.
At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon’s official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.
The number of brain-injury cases were tabulated from records kept by the VA and four military bases that house units that have served multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One base released its count of brain injuries at a medical conference. The others provided their records at the request of USA TODAY, in some cases only after a Freedom of Information Act filing was submitted.
Some more creative accounting practices brought to you by the Bush Administration.
The title of your blog makes it sound like you’re trying to be impartial but when you say things like: “Some more creative accounting practices brought to you by the Bush Administration”, you lose your credibility as being impartial. I read the article in USA today, and it was clear this wasn’t a deliberate mistating of facts by the Bush Administration. Rather it is a sad reality that brain injuries aren’t always immediately recoginized or diagnosed and can show up much after the injury has occured.
Brian, moderate means towards the middle, nowhere do I say I am impartial. Also as you say brain injuries sometimes take time to appear but why are they then not counted? Why, because it would make the numbers look worse, hence creative accounting…