Iraq-The uncountedI

[Guest guest]

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@PLANETNEWS broadcast... Iraq: The Uncounted 60 Minutes CBS News Sunday 21 November 2004 Approximately 300,000 American men and women have served at one time oranother in Iraq. Most will return to the United States more or less intact. But some comehome the hard way - on a stretcher, bloody and broken. And, as Correspondent Bob Simon says, there are few bloodier or morebroken than Chris Schneider. Schneider says he believed in the war in Iraq, and liked wearing theuniform. "[i was] proud to wear it. I loved wearing it," says Schneider, aKansas boy straight off the recruitment poster. He went to college on a wrestling scholarship, started a family, andjoined the Army Reserves. This past January, his unit was providingsecurity for a supply convoy traveling through 100 miles of dangerous Iraqidesert. He was riding in a two-and-a-half ton cargo truck, armed to theteeth. "In my vehicle there was my driver, there was my 50-cal gunner who was ina turret on top," says Schneider. "And then there was myself and anotherindividual in back. We both had M249 machine guns." Schneider saw another convoy coming in his direction - a line of HETS(heavy equipment transports), big rigs on steroids, hogging the road. Thefirst HET just missed hitting his truck. The second one did not. "It threw me up over my vehicle, over the HET and about 50 feet into thefield on the left," says Schneider. "When I landed, the next HET in linehad locked up their brakes to keep from rear ending the one that we hit.And when he came to rest, the first set of tires on his trailer were parkedon my pelvis. And the second set had my lower leg wedged in it to the axle.I've been told a rough estimate of approximately 120,000 to 140,000 pounds." Today, Schneider walks with a limp, on his artificial leg. But eventhough he was injured while on a mission in a war zone - and even thoughhe'll receive the same benefits as a soldier who'd been shot - he is notincluded in the Pentagon's casualty count. Their official tally shows onlydeaths and wounded in action. It doesn't include "non-combat" injured,those whose injuries were not the result of enemy fire. "It's a slap in the face. Although it was through no direct hostileaction, I was on a mission that they'd given me in hostile territory.Hostile enough that we had to have a perimeter set up at the time of myaccident to prevent from an ambush or an attack," says Schneider. "Forthose of us that were unfortunate enough to get injured. Whether it washostile action or not, we're all paying the same price." How many injuredand ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines - like Chris Schneider - areleft off the Pentagon's casualty count? Would you believe 15,000? 60 Minutes asked the Department of Defense togrant us an interview. They declined. Instead, they sent a letter, whichcontains a figure not included in published casualty reports: "More than15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have beenevacuated from Iraq." Many of those evacuated are brought to Landstuhl in Germany. Most casesare not life-threatening. In fact, some are not serious at all. But only 20percent return to their units in Iraq. Among the 80 percent who don'treturn are GIs who suffered crushing bone fractures; scores of spinalinjuries; heart problems by the hundreds; and a slew of psychiatric cases.None of these are included in the casualty count, leaving the true humancost of the war something of a mystery. "It's difficult to estimate what the total number is," says John Pike,director of a research group called GlobalSecurity.org. As a military analyst, Pike has spoken out against both Republican andDemocratic administrations. He's weighed all the available casualty dataand has made an informed estimate that goes well beyond what the Pentagonhas released. "You have to say that the total number of casualties due to wounds,injury, disease would have to be somewhere in the ballpark of over 20,maybe 30,000," says Pike. His calculation, striking as it is, is based on the military's owndefinition of casualty - anyone "lost to the organization," in this case,for medical reasons. And Pike believes it's no accident that the militaryreports a number far lower than his estimate. "The Pentagon, I think, is afraid that they're going to lose publicsupport for this war, the way they lost public support for Vietnam back inthe 1960s," says Pike. "And minimizing the apparent cost of the war, Ithink, is one way that they're hoping to sustain public support here athome." 60 Minutes asked the assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairsabout that claim - that casualties are being underreported, for politicalreasons. And we got a flat denial. In a letter, he told us, "We in theDepartment of Defense categorically reject the notion that we areunderreporting casualties from Operation Iraqi Freedom." He pointed out that he'd already provided us with some figures - the15,000 evacuations of non-combat injured and ill. Still, Pike says themilitary is trying to minimize the casualty count. It's an effort Pikebelieves is misguided, because he says that even if Americans understoodthe full human cost of the war, public support would not weaken. "I think that all of the public opinion polling that we're seeingsuggests that the public is prepared to sustain far higher casualties thanpoliticians give them credit for," says Pike. "I think that it's basicallythat the politicians and the Pentagon, don't have confidence in theAmerican people." The Department of Defense did not include non-battleinjuries in its casualty reports in other recent wars, either. But that'sof little comfort to Joel Gomez, who was riding in the back of a Bradleyfighting vehicle, looking for insurgents, when disaster struck. "Unfortunately, the Bradley was too heavy for the road, a dirt road, andthe ground gave way. And we wound up flipping down the mountain. And itlanded upside-down in the Tigris River," says Gomez. His two buddies were killed. Gomez made it out, but he's now paralyzed."[it's] a horrific change. I can't move my legs. I can't move my arms,"says Gomez. "It just totally changes your life in a manner that you couldnever imagine." Even though Gomez tumbled into the Tigris while looking for insurgents,he is, by the Pentagon's definition, "non-combat injured." "They blow it off and say it's just an accident," say Gomez. "I'm surethat somebody getting shot in the back would just be an accident. Butthat's how they see it." The Department of Defense says the injuries and illnesses suffered byGomez and thousands of other troops should not be taken out of context. Intheir letter to 60 Minutes, they said: "In order to understand rates ofinjuries and diseases, it is necessary to understand what the normal orusual rates of injuries and diseases might be in other situations." What does this mean? That there are always going to be a certain numberof accidents and injuries, war or no war - though they offer no numbers forcomparison. "Soldiers and Marines are gonna get sick. They're gonna get intoaccidents. But there's gonna be more disease, more accidents, morepsychiatric stress in Iraq than if they were back here," says Pike, whoadds that hundreds of troops in Iraq have been so paralyzed by stress thatthey've had to be medically evacuated - though you won't see them reportedin the casualty count. Traditionally, that count has not included combatstress. It was long thought, in the military's macho culture, thatpsychological trauma is best suffered in silence. Graham Alstrom has been back from Iraq for over a year, but he's stillhaunted by what he saw - and what he did to other people. "Some of them Ishot. Some of them I blew up with grenades. Some of them were stabbed,"says Alstrom. The memories of killing invaded his mind. Soon after he returned home,Alstrom's life began to unravel. "The drinking started immediately. I stopped sleeping. And I startedgetting very angry. I didn't want to talk to my family anymore. I didn'twant them to see me. I didn't want to see them. I felt like they wereashamed of me," says Alstrom. "I was partly ashamed of some of the things Ihad done. ?I couldn't separate the killing people and killing them incombat." He says he's frustrated that the military says his illness is notcombat-related. "I know what I was like before I went to combat. I had alife beyond the Army," says Alstrom. "I talked to my family. I'd sharefeelings and emotions with people I cared about. I lived a very regularlife." Alstrom won't get a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq. It was only hismind that was wounded in battle. "It doesn't matter what the paperworksays. We know what happened over there. We know what we did over there,"says Alstrom. "And no piece of paperwork saying that I'm not a casualtycould ever take that away. For any of us." They've had so much taken away already, but both Alstrom and Schneiderinsist that what remains inside them is the heart of a good soldier. "I'm very supportive of why we're there. I'm very supportive of what wedid while I was there," says Schneider. "I believe wholeheartedly that notonly should we have gone, but that we've done the right thing." Now, he'd like the military to do the right thing, too. "Every one of us went over there with the knowledge that we could die,"says Schneider. "And then they tell you - you're wounded - or yoursacrifice doesn't deserve to be recognized, or we don't deserve to be ontheir list - it's not right. It's almost disgraceful."