Home > Stop Hiding the Toll of War
By Nancy Lessin and Gordon Clark,
President Bush’s rationale for taking us to war in Iraq
has crumbled. The truth about supposed Iraqi weapons of
mass destruction is being told. At the same time,
another truth remains hidden by the Bush administration:
the 550 troops who have returned from Iraq in caskets
and the thousands returning with severe physical and
psychological damage.
The military planes carrying human remains fly into
Dover Air Force Base in Delaware under cover of
darkness. Unlike Vietnam, when Americans could see the
consequences of war, the media are now banned from Dover
Air Force Base by military order, reinforced for the
Iraq war by an edict from Mr. Bush.
One does not need to be a historian to know that the
image of dead Americans, returning day after day in body
bags, helped turn America against the war in Vietnam.
This administration has gone to great lengths to prevent
a repeat by keeping images of lifeless and broken bodies
away from the cameras and the consciousness of the
American people. Mr. Bush has not yet attended a single
funeral for anyone killed in Iraq - not a single one.
Spain and Italy held state funerals for their countrymen
who died in Iraq, but the Bush Administration’s policy
for our own war dead is to hide them.
The media blackout extends to the legions of wounded who
have returned from Iraq as well. Media stories on
wounded troops often use Pentagon figures for those
officially wounded in combat, numbering around 3,000.
These numbers ignore the well over 7,000 troops who have
been injured or made ill as a result of the war.
According to Disabled American Veterans, an additional
6,891 troops were medically evacuated between March 19,
2003 and Oct. 30, 2003, for everything from vehicle
accidents to attempted suicides.
The Bush administration is trying to hide the reality
described by an Army Nurse Corps captain stationed at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in a recent message to
the Bring Them Home NOW! campaign: "[It is] so sad to
see young wives cry over their honey who was in Iraq
less than one month before losing both legs and having
several abdominal surgeries leaving his belly
crisscrossed with staples, and now he is fighting for
his life from the infection that the injuries caused."
As hard as it may be, these are images the American
people need to see, to make informed decisions about
this war and its costs.
In their effort to keep this reality from the public,
the Bush administration has gone so far as to restrict
access of professionally trained and accredited
representatives of Disabled American Veterans from
military hospitals â€" access that the DAV has had for
more than six decades to counsel and work with service
members. The few visits that have been allowed are with
pre-selected patients, and closely monitored.
An administration that was honest about the true cost of
this war would have increased budget allocations to
support the troops and their needs. Instead, in a
continuing effort to deny the reality and consequences
of the war in Iraq, Mr. Bush’s priorities add insult to
grave injury. Last year he proposed cutting $1.5 billion
from military family housing, while the troops were at
war, and also tried to roll back increases for combat
pay for soldiers serving in combat zones. This year’s
budget shortchanges veterans’ health care so egregiously
that the Commander-In-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign
Wars called it a "disgrace and a sham."
The President is trying to hide damaging revelations
about pre-war intelligence by postponing reports until
after Election Day. He will try to hide the human costs
of this war, if the American people let him.
On March 14 and 15, as we approach the first anniversary
of this war, military families, including those who have
lost loved ones in Iraq, veterans, clergy and peace
activists will gather at Dover Air Force Base in
Delaware to begin a Memorial Procession for Mourning and
Truth. We will pull back the veil, honor and mourn the
dead and acknowledge the wounded - both U.S. military
personnel and the tens of thousands of Iraqi casualties.
The memory of these individuals will then be brought to
the White House, along with the plea: Start telling the
truth, stop hiding the toll, and bring an end to this
war.
Nancy Lessin is co-founder of Military Families Speak
Out; Gordon Clark is coordinator of the Iraq Pledge of
Resistance.