From the Archives:Out of Sight, Out of Mind

(This MediaBloodhound op-ed column was originally posted on November 7, 2005. The death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq surpassed 2,500 this week. More than 475 American soldiers have lost their lives since the time this was written. Certainly, a grim statistic. But now, just as then, little attention is given to the number of wounded soldiers, even though over 3,270 more of them have joined these ranks during the same period, pushing the total to nearly 18,500. The mainstream media's insufficient coverage of their numbers, anguish and plight continues to this day. A grave disservice to these young men and women who were sent into battle under false pretenses, and to the American public who are still largely shielded from the human costs of this war.)

They arrive at night in the darkness of their new lives. They are greeted only by military physicians in fatigues. No one else to document their suffering, or their swelling ranks. Among them a fresh crop of amputees, of blind and deaf and permanently disfigured, of paraplegics and quadriplegics, of those suffering from traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).

They are the wounded. The forgotten. Their bodies and minds shattered by a war of choice that was chosen for them. Over weapons of mass destruction that never existed. Over something the mainstream media remains hard-pressed to say: a lie.

Over 15,220 American soldiers now carry the life-altering scars that this lie has left. In addition to the near daily tally of dead American soldiers - over 2,025 and counting - and the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been prematurely liberated into the afterlife, our wounded troops remain almost completely hidden from public view. And not by chance.

As with the arriving caskets of fallen soldiers at Dover Air Force Base, the wounded returning from Iraq have been off-limits to photographers and the deferring news media. A ban this administration has enforced since the beginning of the war. Moreover, a Salon investigation uncovered that flights carrying the wounded only arrive in the United States at night. Journalist Mark Benjamin writes: “Officials at the Pentagon’s Air Mobility Command, which manages all the evacuations, refused to talk on the record to explain the nighttime flights, or to clarify discrepancies in their off-the-record explanations of why the flights arrive when they do.” John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense information Web site, says, “It is puzzling because there are perfectly sensible explanations for this, but those are not the explanations being offered. And the explanation being offered makes no sense.”

Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Operation Truth, an advocacy group for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, says, “They do it so nobody sees [the wounded], adding, “The overall cost of this war has been continuously hidden throughout. As the costs get higher, their efforts to conceal those costs also increase.”

The military’s “fuzzy math” is another method for obfuscating the war’s toll. According to the Pentagon, only soldiers wounded or killed in combat situations are reflected in casualty counts. Bombs or bullets. This excludes troops incurring injuries or illnesses in “non-combat” situations, from the all-too-common Humvee accidents to disease to psychological trauma. The number of such wounded today is believed to be in the tens of thousands. In a “60 Minutes” report from November 2004, the Department of Defense, who declined an interview with them, did send a letter with a figure not included in their published casualty reports: “More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq.” And, yes, that was a year ago.

Army reservist Chris Schneider, for example, was in hostile territory though not under fire when he was thrown from his vehicle and subsequently lost his leg. He is not counted as a casualty of war. In the military’s and this administration’s eyes, he does not count. It’s not only demoralizing to him and the thousands of others in his situation, but also grossly inaccurate for the public perception at large.

The mainstream media's failure to shine a light on how the wounded are being represented and treated is also a disservice to those who serve. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, one in every six soldiers returning from Iraq may have PTSD. Yet the military is reluctant to diagnose soldiers’ mental trauma as having been caused by their combat service. Why? Economics. Psychological disorders stemming from combat can require the military to pay disability for years. Group therapy sessions, according some soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, often focus more on childhood and family experiences than the war.

“When you get [to Walter Reed], they analyze you, break you down, and try to find anything wrong with you before you got in the Army,” said Spc. Josh Sanders, who had been evacuated from Baghdad because of mental strain. “They started asking me questions about my mom and my dad getting divorced. That was the last thing on my mind when I’m thinking about people getting fragged and burned bodies being pulled out of vehicles. They asked me if I missed my wife. Well, shit yeah, I missed my wife. That is not the fucking problem here. Did you ever put your foot through a 5-year-old’s skull?”

The next time you hear the latest tally of soldiers killed, ask yourself how many were wounded, and will never be the same. When President Bush speaks again of “our” sacrifice, remember these words from U.S. Army Sgt. Erik Howard, a combat medic:

“Personally, I think there’s a difference between living and being alive,” Howard said. “A lot of us fear losing an arm or a leg; a lot of guys worry they’ll get hurt and lose their genitals. It’s the head injuries that are the worst, in my opinion. I fear getting a head wound - having brain damage and still being alive, but not being able to care for my wife or kids.” He added, “Not many of us worry about death except for the effect on our families.”

A new accounting must be made.