In “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”, Just a Bump in the Beltway brings to our attention the outlandish number of wounded American soldiers in Iraq, an issue that the Pentagon is doing everything in its power to keep from the front pages.

If you really want to feel sick, listen to this report from NPR:

Wounded Soldiers in Iraq Lead to Thousands of Evacuations

In this piece, which aired in September, Daniel Zwerdling of NPR reports on the exact definition of “wounded in action.” Lt. Col. Donald Cole has been keeping track of the number of soldiers medivac-ed out of Iraq. That number was 20,245 on SEPTEMBER 30! We can only guess what it is now.

You really must listen to this NPR broadcast…”wounded in action” is a narrowly defined term that the military uses to minimize the numbers of injured soldiers reported back home. You’ll be surprised to hear about some of the injuries that “have nothing to do with the war.” The report describes a soldier hurt in a car accident that occured while he was on a mission in Iraq. But because it wasn’t a combat mission, his injury is not reported as “wounded in action.” The soldier will be lucky to walk again without a cane. The official report on his injury merely says that he was “injured in a traffic accident.”

Instead of hearing about the number of soldiers “wounded in action,” we need to hear about the number of soldiers “wounded while serving in Iraq.”

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