The Real Casualty Count From War

Casualty figures have been manipulated in every war. Starting in Vietnam, the US has made casualty figures a means to maintain support for the war by reporting inflated enemy casualties. Starting with the Gulf Wars, casualty reports have been shorted on our own troops. No, I can't say I know that the US is lying about deaths and wounded among our troops. I do know that the Department of Defense has a number of other catagories of casualties that are not included in the total. Most of these casualties may not have been recognized as such in previous conflicts. However, the services own actions tells us they do count these casualties now, they just don't report them. I'm talking about Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues that develop while troops are in combat situations. The figures I've been seeing suggest one can double the number of wounded and come up with roughly a count of those with a medical discharge due to mental health conditions.
Here is some data that suggests it's much worse than that. The more we learn about the consequences of war, the more we need to wonder under what circumstances are the losses worth the gains. Certainly not in Iraq or Vietnam.
USATODAY.com

More than one in four U.S. troops have come home from the Iraq war with health problems that require medical or mental health treatment, according to the Pentagon's first detailed screening of servicemembers leaving a war zone. (Related: Troops screened as never before)


Almost 1,700 servicemembers returning from the war this year said they harbored thoughts of hurting themselves or that they would be better off dead. More than 250 said they had such thoughts "a lot." Nearly 20,000 reported nightmares or unwanted war recollections; more than 3,700 said they had concerns that they might "hurt or lose control" with someone else.
These survey results, which have not been publicly released, were provided to USA TODAY by the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. They offer a window on the war and how the ongoing insurgency has added to the strain on troops.
Overall, since the war began, about 28% of Iraq veterans — about 50,000 servicemembers this year alone — returned with problems ranging from lingering battle wounds to toothaches, from suicidal thoughts to strained marriages. The figure dwarfs the Pentagon's official Iraq casualty count: 1,971 U.S. troops dead and 15,220 wounded as of Tuesday.