LETTERS: Noncombat Deaths in Iraq, Waterboarding and Circulation Numbers

By: E&P Staff Readers wrote in today about a column about Noncombat deaths in Iraq, waterboaring, and circulation numbers.


Who Will Probe 'Noncombat' Deaths in Iraq?

Just as reporter Mark Benjamin was writing about the squalor and poor treatment of Iraq War vets four years before the Washington Post "discovered" the problems five miles from the their offices last spring, he also addressed "mystery pneumonia" in a series of UPI articles in mid-2003.

There is every indication that these deaths were caused by vaccine experimentation, which the Army apparently stopped after the adverse publicity. The "pneumonia" was identical to an autoimmune condition -- hypersensitivity pneumonitis -- associated with anthrax vaccine in medical journal articles by DoD physicians.

DoD and the Army mounted a cover-up and the blame was placed on Iraqi cigarettes, even though similar cases occurred in non-deployed servicemembers. Only lapdog reporters were invited to participate in a telephone conference with former DoD's ASD (Health Affairs) Dr. William Winkenwerder, and the problem was declared solved.

John Richardson
LtCol, USAFR, ret.

The traditional definition of casualties has always been KIA, killed by accidents or disease, injuries, sickness and suicides. Except in this war.

Anything that removes a soldier from duty in a combat zone was counted.

I would defy anyone to say with any assurance that they know what the Iraq combat casualties are (under the traditional definition) or that they know of a way to calculate them.

The media has made it a practice to show only the number of deaths. On the rare occasion that they show deaths and wounded they are hit with a barrage of letters accusing them of being anti-war. Lord help them if they ever reported a total casualties figure.

Even the dead reported may be under counted. We just have no way of knowing from official figures. No one can sit there in Dover and count the airplanes and the caskets. Its verboten.

Has anyone ever attempted to use Nexis-Lexis to count the dead in news stories from around the country?

It is obscene to count as a non-combat death a death that occurs when a military vehicle overturns in a combat zone, and all of Iraq is a combat zone. If I had a son or daughter killed in Iraq in that manner I would feel that that son or daughter had some how been
denigrated, that their death was not as "worthy" as that of some one shot by an Iraqi.

The media now controlled by conglomerates involved with the defense industries or dependent on favorable governmental rulings no longer serves a higher purpose (if it ever did). It is all to ready to go along to get along.

Bob Reynolds
Orange Park, Fla.

A 1944 report from the Army Surgeon General establishes that the aggregate number of combat days the mind can deal with is 200-240. Those were WW II combat days, not 24/7 as in Vietnam to a certain degree and for sure in Iraq.

Our service members are exceeding those norms regularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. You reap what you sow.

Gerald A. Lechliter
Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.-1999)
Lewes, Del.


Memo to Media: I Witnessed 'Waterboarding' -- And, Yes, It is Torture
Is waterboarding torture? Of course it is, and it's a question that no one should have to raise.

As a result of childhood trauma, I have feared drowning to this day. If someone were to waterboard me, I would blurt out anything to avoid another second of, yes, torture.

Unpatriotic? No, just honest, and, phobia or not, I am sure that's how other ordinary citizens feel. If we must prove waterboarding as torture, let us attempt to do so with those who insist it is not -- our president and vice president.

Wes Pedersen
Chevy Chase, Md.


First FAS-FAX Numbers: Many Top Papers Take Big Hits
I would be interested if you followed-up on the circulation FAS-FAX gainers. How are the papers listed increasing their circ? What kind of programs are working for them?


Jessalyn Daniszewski
Chicago