DSC09575.JPG
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
XL President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Statement on Signing the Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act of 1988
May 20, 1988
I have today approved H.R. 1811, the "Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act of 1988." The Act adjusts the law governing eligibility for disability benefits for certain veterans due to the unique circumstances of their military service in the early days of the atomic age.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/25/1085393/-Dan-Rather-got-it-right-George-W-Bush-DID-go-AWOL#
DAILY KOS
WED APR 25, 2012 AT 01:33 PM PDT
Dan Rather got it right George W. Bush DID go AWOL
byLefty Coaster
I always suspected something like this was the case. The new issue of Texas Monthly delves into the long neglected story of George W. Bush less than stellar military career in the Texas Air National Guard. The Texas Monthly lays out the surprisingly complicated mechanizations that led to the Junior Bush landing this plumb spot in the T.A.N.G.
That George W. got special treatment at a time when draftees were likely to end up slogging through the jungles of Viet Nam shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone who knows how America routinely gives special treatment to the offspring of the 1%. What did come as a surprise was why George W. stopped flying and that he apparently did so with the tacit approval of his commanding officers in TANG, who who viewed Bush's move to Alabama to work on Winton "Red" Blount's campaign for the U.S. Senate as the the Junior Bush's effective departure from their unit and apparently from his 6 year obligation to the National Guard as well.
Truth or Consequences(subscription)
by Joe Hagan
MAY 2012
But the CBS documents that seem destined to haunt Rather are, and have always been, a red herring. The real story, assembled here for the first time in a single narrative, featuring new witnesses and never-reported details, is far more complex than what Rather and Mapes rushed onto the air in 2004. At the time, so much rancorous political gamesmanship surrounded Bush’s military history that it was impossible to report clearly (and Rather’s flawed report effectively ended further investigations). But with Bush out of office, this is no longer a problem.
While the Linkes were there, Bush’s former commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, allegedly told them that Bush had stopped flying because he became afraid to land the plane. “He was mucking up bad, Killian told us,” Janet said to a Florida newspaper. (Jan Peter died in a car accident in 1973.)
But by the time Linke went public with her allegation, the press had already abandoned the Bush National Guard story for the Dan Rather controversy. Also ignored was some possible corroborating evidence...
What’s clear, however, is that Bush’s superiors made it unusually easy for him to quit flying and leave Houston. They first attempted to sign him up for a postal unit in Alabama that met once a month. (The commander of the outfit told Bush he couldn’t guarantee that the group would even exist in three months but added, “We’re glad to have you!”) When Bush was informed that he couldn’t fulfill his duty by doing that, he sent a letter requesting “equivalent duty” with the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, at Dannelly Air Base, in Montgomery. The unit commander, in official memos, said Bush could start by attending two drills in September 1972. He didn’t show up for the drills.
When Bush lost his flight status, in August 1972, the official military protocol of the Texas Air National Guard was to open an internal investigation and review why the pilot didn’t show up for his physical. It says so on Bush’s own documents. That never happened.
Bush’s go-to expert on his military record, Albert Lloyd, said a report wasn’t necessary because Bush’s commanders knew he had stopped flying to go to work in Alabama—proof only that the Air National Guard blew off the rules when it came to Bush.
The Junior Bush wasn't so much disobeying orders as getting vague orders crafted to fit into his plans. Too bad so many other young Americans without Bush's Daddy's connections had their lives interrupted to be sent off to Viet Nam.
From 3/16/1951 ( premiere US film "The Red Badge of Courage" ) To 10/1/1973 ( George Walker Bush released fraudulently from Texas Air National Guard obligated service ) is 8235 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/20/1988 is 8235 days
From 6/8/1949 ( George Orwell "Nineteen Eighty-Four" ) To 12/25/1971 ( George Walker Bush the purveyor of illegal drugs strictly for his personal profit including the trafficking of massive amounts of cocaine into the United States confined to federal prison in Mexico for illegally smuggling narcotics in Mexico ) is 8235 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/20/1988 is 8235 days
From 12/17/1953 ( Dwight Eisenhower - Executive Order 10510 - Establishing a Seal for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare ) To 7/4/1976 ( at extreme personal risk to himself my biological brother Thomas Reagan the civilian and privately financed astronaut in his privately financed atom-pulse propulsion spaceship successfully intercepts the Comet Lucifer in the outer solar system and diverts it away from the planet Earth ) is 8235 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/20/1988 is 8235 days
From 4/15/1981 ( Ronald Reagan - Statement on Granting Pardons to W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller ) To 5/20/1988 is 2592 days
2592 = 1296 + 1296
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/21/1969 ( the Princeton University doctor of medicine degree graduation of my biological brother Dr Thomas Reagan MD ) is 1296 days
From 9/15/1966 ( premiere US TV series episode "Star Trek"::"Charlie X" ) To 5/20/1988 is 7918 days
7918 = 3959 + 3959
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 9/4/1976 ( George Walker Bush the purveyor of illegal drugs strictly for his personal profit including the trafficking of massive amounts of cocaine into the United States arrested again by police in the United States ) is 3959 days
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
XL President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Statement on Signing the Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act of 1988
May 20, 1988
I have today approved H.R. 1811, the "Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act of 1988." The Act adjusts the law governing eligibility for disability benefits for certain veterans due to the unique circumstances of their military service in the early days of the atomic age.
The adjustment applies in limited circumstances to three specific categories of American veterans:
—veterans who served with U.S. forces occupying Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan during the period beginning on August 6, 1945, and ending on July 1, 1946;
—veterans interned as prisoners of war in Japan during World War II (or who served on active duty in Japan immediately following such internment), if their internment resulted in an opportunity for exposure to ionizing radiation comparable to that of veterans who served in the forces occupying Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and
—veterans who participated on-site in a test involving the atmospheric detonation of a nuclear device.
The adjustment applies only with respect to specified diseases—primarily cancer of various organs—that manifest themselves within 40 years after the veteran last participated in the military radiation-related activity or, in the case of leukemia, 30 years after such participation. Thus, for veterans who served in Hiroshima and Nagasaki or were prisoners of war in Japan, the period for manifestation of the disease already has passed.
The existing fair and equitable system for adjudication of veterans' claims for disability benefits requires demonstration of a connection between a veteran's disability and the veteran's military service. While this legislation bypasses the requirement for demonstration of such a connection, it does so only in specific, narrow circumstances for a truly unique group of veterans.
Enactment of this legislation does not represent a judgment that service-related radiation exposure of veterans covered by the Act in fact caused any disease, nor does it represent endorsement of a principle of permitting veterans to receive benefits funded through veterans programs which bear no relationship to their former military service.
Instead, the Act gives due recognition for the unusual service rendered by Americans who participated in military activities involving exposure to radiation generated by the detonation of atomic explosives. The Nation is grateful for their special service, and enactment of H.R. 1811 makes clear the Nation's continuing concern for their welfare.
RONALD REAGAN
The White House,
May 20, 1988.
Note: H.R. 1811, approved May 20, was assigned Public Law No. 100-321.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-02-10-bush-service-timeline_x.htm
USA TODAY
Posted 2/10/2004 1:02 PM Updated 2/11/2004 12:15 AM
Timeline of the president's National Guard service
By the Associated Press
Major events in President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard, according to National Guard Bureau records:
May 1972: Bush asks for and receives permission to continue his duties in Alabama while he works as political director on the Senate campaign of Winton M. Blount, a friend of his father. Loses flight credentials after missing physical exam.
Sept. 6, 1972: Bush's request for a three-month transfer to 187th TAC Recon Group, Montgomery, Ala. is approved so he can work as political director for a Senate campaign.
November 1972: Bush returns to his unit at Ellington in Texas.
May-July 1973: Participates in non-flying drills at Ellington. Works at inner-city poverty program earlier in the year.
Sept. 18, 1973: Bush receives permission to transfer to reserve status and is placed on inactive guard duty about six months before six-year commitment ends. Attends Harvard Business School in the fall.
Oct. 1, 1973: Receives honorable discharge.
http://www.cjr.org/politics/72_minus_64_equals_6.php?page=all
Columbia Journalism Review.
By Thomas Lang
FEBRUARY 11, 2004
72 Minus 64 Equals … 6?
Okay, we’ll grant the point: It isn’t always easy being a reporter these days. President Bush’s National Guard record is confusing, and the White House did not make things any easier yesterday when it released fuzzy microfiche images of President Bush’s 30-year-old pay stubs that looked like a wet bar napkin left to dry in the sun.
Still and all, doing a little basic arithmetic shouldn’t be tying the supposed cream of the nation’s press corps in knots. Unfortunately, it is. Thus, the consistent misreporting on the question of exactly how many months early President Bush received his discharge so he could attend Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass.
This morning’s New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Washington Post all ran stories stating that President Bush received permission to leave the National Guard six months early.
On the other hand, today’s Los Angeles Times reports that Bush was discharged eight months early. Moreover, when The Boston Globe originally broke the story in 2000 they reported eight months, and they have held to that number in more recent articles.
So … who’s got it right and who’s got it wrong? In brief, the key dates are:
May 27, 1968: Bush’s application to enlist in the Air National Guard is approved. His commitment is for six years.
July 14, 1968: Bush begins basic training in Texas.
September 18, 1973: Bush is placed on inactive duty after he receives permission to transfer to reserve status.
October 1, 1973: Bush is honorably discharged.
http://www.wired.com/2009/06/dayintech_0608/
WIRED
TONY LONG 06.08.09
JUNE 8, 1949: LOOMING AHEAD, ORWELL’S BIG BROTHER
1949: Sixty years ago today, Nineteen Eighty-Four is published. It’s official: In the face of the monolithic state, the little guy has no chance at all.
http://www.biblio.com/nineteen-eighty-four-by-orwell-george/work/3692
BIBLIO.com
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR
By Orwell, George
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell has become the definitive dystopian novel of the twentieth century.
Originally published in on June 8, 1949 by Secker and Warburg in the United Kingdom, the book follows the main character, Winston Smith, through his disillusionment with totalitarianism and a doomed struggle of resistance.
http://www.examiner.com/article/george-orwell-s-dystopian-masterpiece
examiner.com
George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece
June 8, 2010 6:32 AM MST
Patricia Hysell
This Day in History Examiner
June 8, 1949: The novel by George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, is published.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?370606
THE INTERNET Speculative Fiction Database
Publication: Nineteen Eighty-Four ISFDB Publication Record # 370606
Authors: George Orwell
Year: 1949-06-08
Publisher: Secker & Warburg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1192484/60-years-Orwell-wrote-1984-destroyed-book-chilling-reminder-sinister-vision-reality.html
Daily Mail
60 years after Orwell wrote 1984 and was destroyed by the book, a chilling reminder that his sinister vision is almost reality
By ROBERT HARRIS
UPDATED: 19:37 EST, 12 June 2009
Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in London on Wednesday, June 8, 1949, and in New York five days later. The world was eager for it.
Within 12 months, it had sold around 50,000 hardbacks in the UK; in the U.S. sales were more than one-third of a million. It became a phenomenon.
Sixty years later, no one can say how many millions of copies are in print, both in legitimate editions and samizdat versions. It has been adapted for radio, stage, television and cinema, has been studied, copied and parodied and, above all, ransacked for its ideas and images.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=106560
The American Presidency Project
Dwight D. Eisenhower
XXXIV President of the United States: 1953-1961
Executive Order 10510 - Establishing a Seal for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
December 17, 1953
WHEREAS the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare has adopted and has recommended that I approve a seal of office for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the design of which accompanies and is hereby made a part of this order, and which is described in heraldic terms as follows:
SHIELD: Argent an open book with sanguine binding charged overall with a staff of Aesculapius paleways within an annulet of chain all proper.
CREST: On a wreath argent and sanguine an American bald eagle displayed and wings partially Inverted proper.
Below the shield a white scroll Inscribed with the motto "SPES ANCHORA VTTAE" In black letters, all on a circular sanguine background within a white band, Inner edge white, outer edge sanguine, and Inscribed "DEPARTMENT OP HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE U.S.A.";
AND WHEREAS it appears that such seal is of suitable design and appropriate for adoption as the official seal of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare:
NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, I hereby approve such seal as the official seal of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 17, 1953.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=43698
The American Presidency Project
Ronald Reagan
XL President of the United States: 1981 - 1989
Statement on Granting Pardons to W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller
April 15, 1981
Pursuant to the grant of authority in article II, section 2 of the Constitution of the United States, I have granted full and unconditional pardons to W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller.
During their long careers, Mark Felt and Edward Miller served the Federal Bureau of Investigation and our nation with great distinction. To punish them further—after 3 years of criminal prosecution proceedings-would not serve the ends of justice.
Their convictions in the U.S. District Court, on appeal at the time I signed the pardons, grew out of their good-faith belief that their actions were necessary to preserve the security interests of our country. The record demonstrates that they acted not with criminal intent, but in the belief that they had grants of authority reaching to the highest levels of government.
America was at war in 1972, and Messrs. Felt and Miller followed procedures they believed essential to keep the Director of the FBI, the Attorney General, and the President of the United States advised of the activities of hostile foreign powers and their collaborators in this country. They have never denied their actions, but, in fact, came forward to acknowledge them publicly in order to relieve their subordinate agents from criminal actions.
Four years ago, thousands of draft evaders and others who violated the Selective Service laws were unconditionally pardoned by my predecessor. America was generous to those who refused to serve their country in the Vietnam war. We can be no less generous to two men who acted on high principle to bring an end to the terrorism that was threatening our nation.
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1993_1164693
Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: TUE 11/09/1993
Governor hopeful Bush: Look past personalities
By ALAN BERNSTEIN, R.G. RATCLIFFE
Staff
Fledgling gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush
"Our leaders should be judged by results, not by entertaining personalities or clever sound bites," Bush told about 300 supporters
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1988_564466
HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARCHIVES
Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: FRI 08/19/1988
Debate renewed over military choices
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Staff
NEW ORLEANS - Questions about the military service of Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle renewed memories Thursday of the agonizing choices young men made during the Vietnam era.
Vietnam represented not only conflict overseas but conflict at home. During the Vietnam War - 1964 to 1973 - more than 26 million American men faced the possibility of being drafted and hard choices about whether to participate in the nation's military.
More than 2 million men and women went to Vietnam, of whom 153,300 were wounded and 58,153 were killed. But an estimated 90,000 young men refused induction into the service or fled the draft by moving to Canada and other countries. Thousands of others opted to continue their personal lives and reduce the risk of seeing combat by joining armed forces reserves and the National Guard.
In 1969, a year when 283,586 young men were drafted, 22-year-old Danny Quayle graduated from DePauw University and lost his draft deferment. He wanted to go on to law school, so he joined the Indiana National Guard.
Now that he has become Vice President George Bush's choice for a GOP presidential running mate, questions occurred about whether Quayle, the heir of a newspaper fortune and a conservative advocate of a strong national defense, used undue family influence to avoid the draft by obtaining a hard-to-get spot in the National Guard.
"The thing that's important, I want you all to remember: He did not go to Canada," said the vice president's son George W. Bush. "Let's keep it in generational perspective."
From 8/28/1990 ( George Bush - Remarks at a White House Briefing for Members of Congress on the Persian Gulf Crisis ) To 12/11/2002 is 4488 days
4488 = 2244 + 2244
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 12/25/1971 ( George Walker Bush the purveyor of illegal drugs strictly for his personal profit including the trafficking of massive amounts of cocaine into the United States confined to federal prison in Mexico for illegally smuggling narcotics in Mexico ) is 2244 days
From 12/25/1991 ( as United States Marine Corps chief warrant officer Kerry Wayne Burgess I was prisoner of war in Croatia ) To 12/11/2002 is 4004 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 10/19/1976 ( United States Public Law 94-553 - Copyright Act of 1976 ) is 4004 days
From 7/12/1952 ( Harry Truman - Statement by the President on the Ground Observer Corps' "Operation Skywatch." ) To 12/11/2002 is 18414 days
18414 = 9207 + 9207
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/17/1991 ( the date of record of my United States Navy Medal of Honor as Kerry Wayne Burgess chief warrant officer United States Marine Corps circa 1991 also known as Matthew Kline for official duty and also known as Wayne Newman for official duty ) is 9207 days
From 7/12/1952 ( Harry Truman - Statement by the President on the Ground Observer Corps' "Operation Skywatch." ) To 12/11/2002 is 18414 days
18414 = 9207 + 9207
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 1/17/1991 ( RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 - the Persian Gulf War begins as scheduled severe criminal activity against the United States of America ) is 9207 days
From 12/7/1998 ( my first day working at Microsoft Corporation as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and the active duty United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel circa 1998 ) To 12/11/2002 is 1465 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 11/6/1969 ( Richard Oakes and his group occupies Alcatraz Island ) is 1465 days
From 6/24/1943 ( Frankin Roosevelt - Executive Order 9355 - PRESCRIBING REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE FURNISHING OF CLOTHING IN KIND OR PAYMENT OF CASH ALLOWANCES IN LIEU THEREOF TO ENLISTED MEN OF THE NAVY, THE COAST GUARD, THE NAVAL RESERVE, AND THE COAST GUARD RESERVE ) To 8/1/1980 ( premiere US film "The Final Countdown" ) is 13553 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 12/11/2002 is 13553 days
From 2/5/1954 ( premiere US film "Beachhead" ) To 3/16/1991 ( my first successful major test of my ultraspace matter transportation device as Kerry Wayne Burgess the successful Ph.D. graduate Columbia South Carolina ) is 13553 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 12/11/2002 is 13553 days
From 11/18/1996 ( premiere US film "Star Trek: First Contact" ) To 12/11/2002 is 2214 days
2214 = 1107 + 1107
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 11/13/1968 ( premiere US film "The Syndicate" ) is 1107 days
From 12/20/1994 ( in Bosnia as Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps captain this day is my United States Navy Cross medal date of record ) To 12/11/2002 is 2913 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 10/24/1973 ( premiere US TV series "Kojak"::series premiere episode "Siege of Terror" ) is 2913 days
From 12/20/1994 ( in Bosnia as Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps captain this day is my United States Navy Cross medal date of record ) To 12/11/2002 is 2913 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 10/24/1973 ( Richard Nixon - Veto of the War Powers Resolution ) is 2913 days
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=73204
The American Presidency Project
George W. Bush
XLIII President of the United States: 2001 - 2009
Statement on the National Strategy To Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction
December 11, 2002
Today I have issued the National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/iraq-a-decade-after-us-invasion-torn-between-progress-and-chaos/2013/03/18/b286006c-8fdc-11e2-9abd-e4c5c9dc5e90_story.html
The Washington Post
Iraq, a decade after U.S. invasion, torn between progress and chaos
By Ernesto Londoño March 19, 2013
BAGHDAD — Ten years after the United States barreled into Iraq with extraordinary force and a perilous lack of foresight, the country is neither the failed state that seemed all but inevitable during the darkest days of the war nor the model democracy that the Americans set out to build.
Haunted by the ghosts of its brutal past, Iraq is teetering between progress and chaos, a country threatened by local and regional conflicts that could drag it back into the sustained bloodshed its citizens know so well.
The nation is no longer defined or notably influenced by its relationship with the United States, despite an investment of about $1.7 trillion and the loss of 4,487 American troops.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/iraq-death-toll_n_4102855.html
THEWORLDPOST
Iraq Death Toll Reaches 500,000 Since Start Of U.S.-Led Invasion, New Study Says
Agence France Presse By KERRY SHERIDAN
Posted: 10/15/2013 9:26 pm EDT Updated: 01/23/2014 6:58 pm EST
Nearly half a million people have died from war-related causes in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003, according to an academic study published in the United States on Tuesday.
That toll is far higher than the nearly 115,000 violent civilian deaths reported by the British-based group Iraq Body Count, which bases its tally on media reports, hospital and morgue records, and official and non-governmental accounts.
The latest estimate by university researchers in the United States, Canada and Baghdad in cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Health covers not only violent deaths but other avoidable deaths linked to the invasion, insurgencies and subsequent social breakdown.
It also differs from some previous counts by spanning a longer period of time and by using randomized surveys of households across Iraq to project a nationwide death toll from 2003 to mid 2011.
Violence caused most of the deaths
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121004134835.htm
Science Daily
Better battlefield triage, transport may raise severely wounded soldiers' survival rates
Date: October 4, 2012
Source: American College of Surgeons
Wounded soldiers who sustained chest injuries in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) had higher mortality rates than soldiers in Korea and Vietnam, according to a military trauma study presented at the 2012 American College of Surgeons Annual Clinical Congress. However, better battlefield triage and transport may have meant that severely wounded soldiers whom would have been considered killed in action in previous conflicts are more likely to get sent to trauma centers in the United States sooner in their course of care, study authors explained.
Trauma surgeons from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in Fort Sam Houston, TX, compared mortality rates from chest injuries in conflicts dating back to the Civil War, when 63 percent of such injuries resulted in death compared with 10 percent in World War II, 2 percent in Korea and 3 percent in Vietnam. The rate of mortality from chest injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan was 8.3 percent. The researchers focused on injuries of the thorax, the part of the body between the neck and the abdomen that harbors the heart and lungs; and analyzed data from the Joint Trauma Theater Registry for U.S. soldiers who sustained a chest injury in Iraq and Afghanistan from January 2003 to May 2011. The analysis did not include soldiers killed in action.
"We feel that these findings are likely a reflection of our ability to get more severely injured soldiers--whom otherwise may have died on the battlefield--to a medical facility," said Capt. Katherine M. Ivey, MD, a resident in general surgery at San Antonio Military Medical Center and presenter of the study. "We have the capability now of moving sicker patients from theater to the United States that we didn't have before."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-froomkin/iraq-soldiers-wounded_b_1176276.html
Huffington Post
Dan Froomkin
Senior Writer, The Intercept
How Many U.S. Soldiers Were Wounded in Iraq? Guess Again.
Posted: 12/30/2011 10:20 am EST Updated: 02/29/2012 5:12 am EST
Reports about the end of the war in Iraq routinely describe the toll on the U.S. military the way the Pentagon does: 4,487 dead, and 32,226 wounded.
The death count is accurate. But the wounded figure wildly understates the number of American servicemembers who have come back from Iraq less than whole.
The true number of military personnel injured over the course of our nine-year-long fiasco in Iraq is in the hundreds of thousands -- maybe even more than half a million -- if you take into account all the men and women who returned from their deployments with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress, depression, hearing loss, breathing disorders, diseases, and other long-term health problems.
We don't have anything close to an exact number, however, because nobody's been keeping track.
The much-cited Defense Department figure comes from its tally of "wounded in action" -- a narrowly-tailored category that only includes casualties during combat operations who have "incurred an injury due to an external agent or cause." That generally means they needed immediate medical treatment after having been shot or blown up. Explicitly excluded from that category are "injuries or death due to the elements, self-inflicted wounds, combat fatigue" -- along with cumulative psychological and physiological strain or many of the other wounds, maladies and losses that are most common among Iraq veterans.
The "wounded in action" category is relatively consistent, historically, so it's still useful as a point of comparison to previous wars. But there is no central repository of data regarding these other, sometimes grievous, harms. We just have a few data points here and there that indicate the magnitude.
Consider, for instance:
The Pentagon's Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reports having diagnosed 229,106 cases of mild to severe traumatic brain injury from 2000 to the third quarter of 2011, including both Iraq and Afghan vets.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040210&slug=dionne10
The Seattle Times
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
E.J. Dionne / Syndicated columnist
And did he mention he's a 'war president'?
WASHINGTON — "I'm a war president."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091187/quotes
IMDb
Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
Quotes
Maj. Malcolm A. Powers: Just came over from supply.
Colonel Meyers: Were you good at that?
Maj. Malcolm A. Powers: Yes, sir!
Colonel Meyers: Well then, stick to it because you're a walking cluster fuck
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 5:52 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Thursday 23 April 2015
