No need to get so excited. No one was questioning YOUR work. (In fact, "no one" knew about it.)
Actually, you conceded the point:
YES the US media often reports the wrong figures; but WE DON'T,And:
The USA no longer has free press, true...BUT THE REST OF THE WORLD still does. And a lot of VERY GOOD investigative war correspondants are IN Iraq and reporting. I don't know if you report the correct figures or not and I'm a little stumped as to how it is you can be so sure that you're reporting the correct figures. I don't think they're fully KNOWABLE. And here's why:
U.S. MILITARY DEATHS:Here's a slightly different number than yours, at Cryptome:
Updated 8 September 2004. Total 1,028 US Dead -- 81 British, Iraqi and others, not included.
http://cryptome.org/mil-dead-iqw.htmNEWSWEEK April 22, 2004
Box Score for the War: The military is reluctant to release comprehensive numbers of troops and civilians killed and wounded in Iraq. Here’s our count. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4766574/January 31 / February 1, 2004
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate Undercounting of "Coalition" Fatalities By PAUL de ROOIJ http://www.counterpunch.org/rooij01312004.htmlsnip
Classification Fudge
If a soldier steps on a landmine, should the victim be classified as a "hostile" casualty? How about someone killed clearing mines? In order to arrive at the media-reported fatality statistics, one must actually classify several such deaths as "non-hostile" - which are thus not reported by most media, as they only report the soldiers killed by "hostile" action.
snip
There is also clear manipulation of the data. For example, soldiers killed by hostile actions are subsequently reclassified as accidental deaths
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Re Mercenaries
Deaths of scores of mercenaries not reported
By Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn, April 13 2004 at 01:21PMhttp://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&art_id=vn20040413132117588C325435&click_id=2813&set_id=1snip
But although many of the heavily armed Western security men are working for the US Department of Defence - and most of them are former Special Forces soldiers - they are not listed as serving military personnel. Their losses can therefore be hidden from public view.
The US authorities in Iraq, however, are aware that more Western mercenaries lost their lives in the past week than occupation soldiers over the past 14 days.
Media Underplays U.S. Death Toll in Iraq
By Greg Mitchell
Published: July 17, 2003
NEW YORK News Analysis http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1935586Any way you look at it, the news is bad enough. According to Thursday's press and television reports, 33 U.S. soldiers have now died in combat since President Bush declared an end to the major fighting in the war on May 2. This, of course, is a tragedy for the men killed and their families, and a problem for the White House.
But actually the numbers are much worse -- and rarely reported by the media.
According to official military records, the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq since May 2 is actually 85. This includes a staggering number of non-combat deaths. Even if killed in a non-hostile action, these soldiers are no less dead, their families no less aggrieved. And it's safe to say that nearly all of these people would still be alive if they were still back in the States.
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INJURIES:
Medical evacuations from Iraq near 11,000
By Mark Benjamin United Press International
Published 12/19/2003 3:30 PM
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031217-032344-8720rPage of Links: The Iraq WAR
http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~het/terror_war/iraqw.htmlPentagon Concealing US Casualties: True Numbers Could Top 21,000
February 12, 2004, David WalshThe Pentagon and the Defense Department have refused to release information on the total number of soldiers wounded in Iraq. The US media may finally be awakening to evidence that the number of wounded could range between 14,000 and 22,000. Many soldiers are so badly wounded they will never be able to lead normal lives.
http://forum.therandirhodesshow.com/index.php?act=ST&f=28&t=2590(February 4, 2004) -- The Bush administration is deliberately concealing from the American people the number and condition of US military personnel who have been wounded in Iraq. The efforts by those few politicians and media figures who have pursued the issue make this clear.
-- more at
http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/edit/index.php?op=view&itemid=1107 --
Thursday, May 6th, 2004
Doctor Who Treated Thousands of GIs Wounded in Iraq: "Severest Form of Injuries I've Seen in My Career" (also uses the 11,000 figure)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/06/149259 Posted on Sat, Dec. 06, 2003
Combat casualty count doubted
By Patrick Peterson
KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNEhttp://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/7427192.htmGULFPORT, Miss. - An influential Mississippi congressman has raised the possibility that the Pentagon has undercounted combat casualties in Iraq after he learned that five members of the Mississippi National Guard who were injured Sept. 12 by a booby trap in Iraq were denied Purple Heart medals.
The guardsmen were wounded by an artillery shell that detonated as their convoy passed the tree in which it was hidden, but their injuries were classified as "noncombat," according to Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss. Taylor, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, learned of the classification when he visited the most seriously injured of the guardsmen, Spc. Carl Sampson, 35, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
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PBS News Reports More than 16,000 Wounded and Injured from Iraq War, Bill Moyers http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=1782NOW with Bill Moyers
http://www.pbs.org/now/printable/transcript325_full_print.html Posted 6/29/2004 5:25:00 PM
The national press missed this blockbuster on June 18: the Pentagon confirms more than 16,000 U.S. service members have been wounded or injured in the Iraq War. DoD failed to report 11,000 soldiers who were wounded or injured. The TV networks and newspapers failed to follow-up on this major scoop. As Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center said, "They
believe that by putting this information out, it's somehow going to affect public opion." Donald Rumsfeld must believe that good public relations is far more important than medical care for our wartime wounded.
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So, please don't take it PERSONALLy that I'd never heard of your tally (and congratulations, I'm sure you're doing great work), but HAVE seen these and other reports seriously calling into question the numbers we're getting -- and perhaps the number you're getting too. I am also not prone to believe ANYthing coming out of any part of this administration, and you will likely to see that sort and level of cynicism from other DUers as well. Again, no need to take it personally.