14 US Dead in 4 Days of April.......

(Though this does not even compare to the dozens of Iraqis dead a day.) This should be pissing people off! CBS evening news spent a whole 10 seconds on this report last night! When will this madness end?

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Military Fatalities: By Time Period

Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
5 190 5 2 197 1.79 110
4 715 13 18 746 2.35 318
3 579 25 27 631 2.92 216
2 718 27 58 803 1.89 424
1 140 33 0 173 4.02 43
Total 2342 103 105 2550 2.3 1111


Military Fatalities: By Month
Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
4-2006 14 0 0 14 3.5 4


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060404/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

U.S. Says 9 More Soldiers Killed in Iraq By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
Tue Apr 4, 2:51 AM ET



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Nine more American troops died in Iraq, the U.S. military reported Monday, five of them in a vehicle accident in a remote, rain-soaked western area. Their deaths brought the number of service members killed so far this month to 13 — nearly half the number who died in all of March.

Three more Americans — two Marines and a sailor — were missing in the Sunday accident in which a truck overturned near Asad air base, a U.S. statement said. All the dead were Marines, the statement added.

It gave no reason for the accident except that it was not a result of hostile fire. Heavy rains fell over the area during the weekend.

Also Sunday, three Marines and a sailor were killed by "hostile fire" in Anbar province, which includes the Asad base, the military said. No further details, including the precise location, were released.

still dying. When you don't see the coffins, and the military funerals are not publicized, and the casualty figures are now buried as an aside in a story about something else (usually prefaced by "meanwhile four soldiers were blown to bits...").

My Italians friends are so disgusted that Americans don't care about their troops. Ribbon magnets infuckingdeed. BRING THEM HOME NOW!

You're very right about that bit, "casualty figures are now buried as an aside in a story about something else (usually prefaced by "meanwhile four soldiers were blown to bits..."). Casualties are reported in this way all the time now, as if their deaths are just a footnote!

Military Coffins:
SNIP-->
"The Photos You're Not Supposed to See!!!!

http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/coffin_photos/dover/

Since March 2003, a newly-enforced military regulation has forbidden taking
or distributing images of caskets or body tubes containing the remains of
soldiers who died overseas.

Immediately after hearing about this,
I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the following:
All photographs showing caskets (or other devices) containing the remains of
US military personnel at Dover AFB.
This would include, but not be limited to, caskets arriving, caskets departing,
and any funerary rites/rituals being performed.
The timeframe for these photos is from 01 February 2003 to the present.

I specified Dover because they process the remains of most, if not all,
US military personnel killed overseas. Not surpisingly, my request was completely
rejected. Not taking 'no' for an answer, I appealed on several grounds, and—to my
amazement—the ruling was reversed. The Air Force then sent me a CD containing 361
photographs of flag-draped coffins and the services welcoming the deceased soldiers.

Score one for freedom of information and the public's right to know.

Further info:

Pentagon Releases 360 More Photos of Fallen Soldiers in Flag-Draped Coffins
(April 2005)

"Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins"

The first three photographs to break the embargo







From "Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins"
by Dana Milbank
(Washington Post, 21 Oct 2003):
Snip-->
"Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions
would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at
air bases in flag-draped caskets.

To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the
public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead
soldiers' homecomings on all military bases.

In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S.
military bases. "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of,
deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein airbase
or Dover base, to include interim stops," the Defense Department said, referring
to the major ports for the returning remains.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the military-wide policy actually dates from about November
2000 -- the last days of the Clinton administration -- but it apparently went unheeded
and unenforced, as images of caskets returning from the Afghanistan war appeared on
television broadcasts and in newspapers until early this year <2003>.
Though Dover Air Force Base, which has the military's largest mortuary, has had restrictions
for 12 years, others "may not have been familiar with the policy," the spokeswoman said.
This year, "we've really tried to enforce it."

Lately, several photos which evade this ban have surfaced.
(If anyone has others, please send them.)"<--Snip

http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/coffin_photos/

You'd think that since we were so close and our love for each other will allow us to be together in Heaven, I'd be the personification of emotional strengh. No, I sobbed like a destitute child as they played Taps and folded the American Flag to be given to my mother.

I feel so much sorrow for people who lose their children in the dawn of their lives. Especially to this senseless occupation. I also feel embarrassed that, unlike them, I was not robbed of my loved one way too early, yet, at the moment they were put to rest - the tears flow unabated by logic.

May God Bless Our Dearly Departed American Soldiers ... may we rid ourselves of these selfish armchair warriors and bring them home soon. :patriot: :cry:

I feel your pain.
I lost my father two years ago...
Thanks to your father! A true patriot! :patriot:
and for you and your Mom :hug:
Peace to you and your's...

May Peace be with you and yours also. :hi: :hug:

the Corp TV Media is mostly broadcasting about Iraq. The fact is that the Corp Media is glossing over the "real" news about Iraq and the Occupation of Afghanistan, which isn't going well, either.

let yourself feel that grief freely.Don't be embarassed.You had a special bond with your dad...those things are tough to lose.:grouphug:

and compassionate Dad. Now I'm not delusional for I know he was not perfect. But he was always there for me.

We need to bring out the tragedy of these young soldiers losing their lives before they have the opportunity to fully realize their hopes and dreams.

It seriously irritates me to hear the right wingers quip, "we lose more in auto accidents." How base! These young people are our children, they are our true National Treasure.

Yes, by all means lets show the pictures of the coffins and the military funerals at every opportunity? All funerals are heart-retching, however, IMO when you have the combination of the gun salute, Taps and the American flag being presented to the Widow or Mother. Well, it tears out anyone's heart for the moment ... well anyone who's blessed an ounce of compassion. That excludes the neo-cons who lied us into this quagmire. :(

I didn't realize it was ALL US military bases! I thought it was just Dover. Now here is a situation where, if we had a real Democratic leadership, our members in congress should be screaming about this. It is shameful how the bush administration is hiding the deaths!

:argh:

Those two missing Marines and the sailor from the truck turnover incident? They're dead. Missing just means that they haven't fished their bodies out of the Euphrates yet.

for last month, I feared this would happen. Last month was strictly the result of the active civil war, and our staying out of it.

The silence from the Ramadi area scares me. I imagine there will be more deaths today. :(

Not just theirs, the Iraqis, too, but I can relate to these kids over there now. They're on a life learning curve, and today will be the day one of them thinks for the first time "holy shit, what kind of mess has Bush gotten us into here? I'm fighting for a LIE!!"