So far this month, 17 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq. That number may or may not be accurate, as the U.S. doesn't immediately confirm and report deaths in Iraq until they've been able to notify the soldier's family.

Last month, May, was reported as the third deadliest month for casualties since the Iraq invasion began. There were 125 of our soldiers killed. Most of them had not gotten to see their 25th birthday.

To date, 3496 U.S. soldiers have died in a conflict not officially sanctioned as a "war" by the Congress, and instigated by a barrage of lies about WMDs and an imminent and immediate threat to the security of the United States.

And as for those reported as "wounded," that number is 25,549 ... however, we're not talking about wounded as in 'put a Band Aid on it, take two aspirins and get plenty of rest' wounded. We're talking about arms, legs, eyes and other body parts missing, mostly blown off by bombs, if not amputated due to severe damage. And this number does not include those suffering from mental illness and post-traumatic stress ... wounds of the psyche, not the just the body.

Additionally, because the Pentagon says that it doesn't count Iraqi civilian casualties, the numbers reported for that statistic vary. However the estimate is between 64,776 - 70934.

According to the website iCasualities.org the Death by Ethnicity data shows an overwhelming majority of the soldiers killed are listed as White 2547 or 75%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (365 or 10.5%) and Black or African American (327 or 9.5%). War is an equal opportunity killer though ... it doesn't really care what race you are.

Last week, the president said in a speech that we should think of this invasion like the Korean war. He was, in essence, saying that we, the American public, should be prepared to have troops in Iraq for several decades in some capacity. We are already spending billions a day to maintain our troop level there right now ... how much more of our money are we going to send there over the next 30, 40, or 50 years? (We have been in Korea for the last 60!)

During the Democratic debate last night, Iraq was the main topic of discussion and it was said that the Democrats were given a mandate by the public with the 2006 election to bring an end to this war and to bring our troops home. I believe that although the initial funding bill sent to Bush with a withdrawal timeline was vetoed by our fearless military-duty dodging commander-in-chief, it was an important step and showed that the Congress could push through controversial legislation regarding this horrible conflict and will hopefully be armed with more public support for bringing the troops home when the bill comes back up for debate in September.

The government suppresses the low morale and discontent of the soldiers that are in Iraq fighting. The military has shut down their ability to post to MySpace and YouTube and has discouraged the use of blogs. This year's budget cut expenditures to VA services for those most in need of medical care and tours of duty are being extended by more than half of their original time.

How this man sleeps at night, I'll never know. But, he's got the blood of thousands of our soldiers not even old enough to buy liquor on his hands. And he will, inevitably, have to pay a price for that.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: EbonyRose,

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BLACK by NATURE, PROUD by CHOICE.
Before there was ANY history, there was BLACK history.

BUY BLACK!!!

He's also killing Iraq's babies, too.

U.S. doubles air attacks in Iraq
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Tue Jun 5, 3:52 PM ET


Four years into the war that opened with "shock and awe," U.S. warplanes have again stepped up attacks in Iraq, dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year ago.

The airpower escalation parallels a nearly four-month-old security crackdown that is bringing 30,000 additional U.S. troops into Baghdad and its surroundings — an urban campaign aimed at restoring order to an area riven with sectarian violence.

It also reflects increased availability of planes from U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. And it appears to be accompanied by a rise in Iraqi civilian casualties.

In the first 4 1/2 months of 2007, American aircraft dropped 237 bombs and missiles in support of ground forces in Iraq, already surpassing the 229 expended in all of 2006, according to U.S. Air Force figures obtained by The Associated Press.

"Air operations over Iraq have ratcheted up significantly, in the number of sorties, the number of hours (in the air)," said Col. Joe Guastella, Air Force operations chief for the region. "It has a lot to do with increased pressure on the enemy by MNC-I" — the Multinational Corps-Iraq — "combined with more carriers."

The Air Force report did not break down the specific locations in Iraq where bombings have been stepped up. But U.S.-led forces also are locked in new and dangerous fronts against insurgents outside Baghdad in such places as Diyala, a province northeast of the capital.

A second U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on station since February in the Persian Gulf has added some 80 warplanes to the U.S. air arsenal in the region.

At the same time, the number of civilian Iraqi casualties from U.S. airstrikes appears to have risen sharply, according to Iraq Body Count, a London-based, anti-war research group that maintains a database compiling news media reports on Iraqi war deaths.

The rate of such reported civilian deaths appeared to climb steadily through 2006, the group reports, averaging just a few a month in early 2006, hitting some 40 a month by year's end, and averaging more than 50 a month so far this year.

Those are maximum tolls based on news reports, and they count those killed by Army helicopter fire as well as by warplanes, Iraq Body Count's John Sloboda said. The count is regarded as conservative, since it doesn't include deaths missed by the international media.

The U.S. military itself says it doesn't track civilian casualties.

"The reality of civilian deaths is a year-on-year increase," said Sloboda, a psychology professor at Britain's Keele University. "This particular part of it — airstrikes — have rocketed up more than any other."

Air Force figures show that, after the thousands of bombs and missiles used in the 2003 "shock and awe" invasion, U.S. airpower settled down to a slow bombing pace: 285 munitions dropped in 2004, 404 in 2005 and 229 in 2006, totals that don't include warplanes' often-devastating 20mm and 30mm cannon or rocket fire, or Marine Corps aircraft.

The number of Air Force and Navy "close air support" missions, which usually involve a flyover show of force or surveillance work, rather than bombing, also has grown by some 30 to 40 percent this spring, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Cox, a ground-forces liaison at the regional air headquarters.

Examples of attacks, as reported in the Air Force's daily summary:

_Last Friday, an Air Force F-16 fighter dropped a guided 500-pound bomb near the northern city of Tal Afar that destroyed a vehicle laden with explosives to be used as a bomb.

_The day before, an F-16 dropped a similar bomb on "an inaccessible building being used by insurgents" near Samarra, north of Baghdad, with "good effects."

_Last Wednesday, another F-16 dropped bombs on "an illegal bridge and an insurgent vehicle in Baghdad."

Police and other Iraqi sources sometimes report civilian casualties in such airstrikes that are not reflected in the official U.S. accounts.

Air Force Col. Gary Crowder, deputy director of the regional air operations center, said such casualties "pale in comparison" with civilian casualties from ground combat.

"In Iraq, we minimize our deployment of air-delivered weapons in populated areas," he said.

Crowder, Guastella and Cox were interviewed outside Iraq at the regional U.S. air headquarters. Journalists are allowed to visit that low-profile base on condition they don't disclose its location, a politically sensitive matter to the host country.

Air attacks in Iraq are still relatively low compared with the numbers of weapons dropped in Afghanistan — 929 this year as of May 15.

___

On the Net:

Iraq Body Count: http://www.iraqbodycount.net

Soldiers struggle to find therapists to take their insurance

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Soldiers returning from war are finding it more difficult to get mental health treatment because military insurance is cutting payments to therapists, on top of already low reimbursement rates and a tangle of red tape.

Wait lists now extend for months to see a military doctor and it can takes weeks to find a private therapist willing to take on members of the military. The challenge appears great in rural areas, where many National Guard and Reserve troops and their families live.

To avoid the hassles of Tricare, the military health insurance program, one frustrated therapist opted to provide an hour of therapy time a week to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for free. Barbara Romberg, a clinical psychologist in the Washington, D.C., area, has started a group that encourages other therapists to do the same.

"They're not going to pay me much in terms of my regular rate anyway," Romberg said. "So I'm actually feeling positive that I've given, rather than feeling frustrated for what I'm going through to get payment."

Joyce Lindsey, 46, of Troutdale, Oregon, sought grief counseling after her husband died in Afghanistan last September. The therapist recommended by her physician would not take Tricare. Lindsey eventually found one on a provider list, but the process took two months.

"It was kind of frustrating," Lindsey said. "I thought, 'Am I ever going to find someone to take this?"'

Roughly one-third of returning soldiers seek out mental health counseling in their first year home. They are among the 9.1 million people covered by Tricare, a number that grew by more than 1 million since 2001.

Tricare's psychological health benefit is "hindered by fragmented rules and policies, inadequate oversight and insufficient reimbursement," the Defense Department's mental health task force said last month after reviewing the military's psychological care system.

The Tricare office that serves Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina -- Army posts with heavy war deployments -- told task force members that it routinely fields complaints about the difficulty in locating mental health specialists who accept Tricare.

"Unfortunately, in some of our communities ... we are maxed out on the available providers," said Lois Krysa, the office's quality manager. "In other areas, the providers just are not willing to sign up to take Tricare assignment, and that is a problem."

Tricare's reimbursement rate is tied to Medicare's, which pays less than civilian employer insurance. The rate for mental health care services fell by 6.4 percent this year as part of an adjustment in reimbursements to certain specialties.

Since 2004, Tricare has sped up payments to encourage more doctors to participate, said Austin Camacho, a Tricare spokesman. In some locations, such as Idaho and Alaska, the Defense Department has also raised rates to attract physicians, he said.

"We are working hard to overcome those challenges," Camacho said.

Jack Wagoner is a retired military officer and psychologist and psychiatrist in private practice who also works for a Tricare contractor. He told defense mental health board members last December that in general, Tricare pays "considerably lower" than private health insurance plans.

According to data from Tricare's Medical Benefits and Reimbursement System office, Tricare pays mental health providers as much or more than a corporate plan would pay a therapist for treating a patient -- although in some cases it is lower.

There are different coverage plans within Tricare, and the amount paid to providers varies by plan, location, specialty and services performed.

Psychologists who treat active duty troops are paid 66 percent of what Tricare views as the customary rate. So a psychologist eligible for a customary rate of $120 per hour would be paid $79.20 for the hour by Tricare, even if the psychologist's standard rate is $150 per hour.

Active duty troops use Tricare Prime, a managed-care option maintained by private contractors. Their mental health care is free. Guard and Reserve troops and their families frequently use Tricare Standard, a fee-for-service plan. They pay an annual deductible and 20 percent of the amount Tricare pays the therapist.

John Class, a retired Navy health care administrator who now advocates on health issues for the Military Officers Association of America, said Tricare Prime contractors insist that the lower reimbursement rates has made it tougher to maintain a network of providers.

"We are already starting to see the pinch," Class said.

In a limited study by Tricare released earlier this year, about two out of three civilian psychiatrists in 20 states were willing to accept Tricare Standard clients among their new patients, the lowest acceptance rate for any specialty.

Any additional cuts in Tricare payouts could mean that "some really good psychologists who specialize in this treatment and are experienced will be seeing less of (military families)," said clinical psychologist Marion Frank, a widow who is president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Gold Star Wives of America, a support group for military widows.

In parts of Montana, some families drive two hours to see a physician of any kind that will take Tricare, said Dorrie Hagan, state family program director for the Montana National Guard.

"When you get away from a city of any size then you start struggling for providers, and they'll tell you flat out it's because of the rate of pay," Hagan said.

Mental stress of troops in Iraq no bar to longer duty, US says

Simon Tisdall in Washington
Thursday June 21, 2007
The Guardian

The Pentagon could extend combat tours in Iraq despite an official report showing that hundreds of thousands of US troops who have been involved in at least one war zone in Iraq or Afghanistan are experiencing serious psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to the Pentagon's own mental health taskforce, US troops have been undertaking higher levels of sustained combat duty than that experienced by soldiers during the war in Vietnam and in the second world war.

It found that 38% of soldiers, 31% of marines, 49% of national guard members and 43% of marine reservists showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychological problems within three months of returning from active duty. Its report also noted inadequate mental healthcare and facilities, and prejudice over mental health problems.

The US has about 155,000 troops in Iraq, most of whom typically spend 15 months in combat zones with a guaranteed 12 months at home. But that is a breach of the Pentagon's own rules saying equal time should be spent on and off duty.

This week, Peter Geren, acting army secretary, told Congress that extended stints of frontline duty could be ordered if President Bush opted to push the 30,000-strong troop surge in Iraq beyond September. The senate armed services committee heard that while no decisions had been made, plans had to be started.

Yesterday, Vice-Admiral Donald Arthur, co-chairman of the Pentagon's mental health taskforce, said there was "no doubt" that more numerous and lengthier deployments were exacerbating mental health problems. "Not since Vietnam have we seen this level of combat," he said.

The taskforce's report said symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury - the two "signature injuries" associated with service in Iraq and Afghanistan - included anger and substance abuse. And soldiers' reticence meant the problem was probably greater than research indicated. The report also questioned the practice of returning troops to frontline duty while they were taking medication such as lithium or Prozac.

A cut in combat duties to lessen psychological stress was also urged by an army study based on research in Iraq last year. But that proposal was rejected this week by a senior aide to the ground forces commander in Iraq. Brigadier-General Joseph Anderson told USA Today: "We would never get the job done."

Their Blood is on Bush's Hands

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