Progress Pond

15 and 3: The Gulf War Years in Numbers

ilona

Related Note: Zogby International, in conjunction with Le Moyne College, has just completed a first-ever opinion poll of our combat troops serving in Iraq. The results are absolutely stunning.

This past Thursday, February 23rd, was the 15th anniversary of the start of the first Gulf War’s ground war: Desert Storm. It lasted, incredibly, from start to finish 100 hours. We celebrate the end of that war tomorrow.

March 19th will be the 3rd anniversary of the start of the second Gulf War: Operation Iraqi Freedom. Although it was said that we destroyed 80% of the Iraqi army in 1991, OIF has now run 25,800+ hours and counting. We don’t know when we’ll be able to celebrate the end of this war.

As we pay our respects to those who served, those who died, those who suffered – and suffer still – a review of the two wars is in order. Though facts and figures and numbers and stats are sterile and dry for some, they no less have a tale to tell…

DS = Desert Storm (February 23, 1991 – February 27, 1991)
OIF = Operation Iraqi Freedom (March 19, 2003 – ?)

From Merriam Webster dictionary:
“Casualty: a military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, or capture or through being missing in action.”

From Sourcewatch.org: Both the Pentagon and many media reports exclude wounded from their “casualty statistics”. They may refer to some wounded soldiers, but then don’t have a tally for them. In addition, soldiers injured in “non-hostile” circumstances aren’t tallied either. Non-DOD US Government employees, e.g., State Department, aren’t tallied either.

In the Persian Gulf War, about three troops were wounded in action for every fatality. In Iraq, about seven are being wounded for every one killed. – Alan Bavley in New technology and medical practices save lives in Iraq. Knight Ridder Newspapers, 17 Dec 2003.

“Iraq went from the fourth-largest army in the world to the second-largest army in Iraq in 100 hours.” – Lieutenant General Tom Kelly on Desert Storm

The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. Now, there are a lot of claims on that money, but…we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon. — Former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, testimony to the US House Appropriations Committee, March 27, 2003

According to the Department of Defense, by 1999, the military revealed of the Gulf War:

  • As many as 100,000 U.S. troops were exposed to repeated low-levels of chemical warfare agents, including sarin, cyclosarin, and mustard gases;
  • More than 250,000 received the investigational new drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB pills) the Pentagon “cannot rule out” as linked to Gulf War illnesses;
  • 8,000 received the investigational new botulinum toxoid (Bot Tox) vaccine;
  • 150,000 received the hotly debated anthrax vaccine;
  • 436,000 entered into or lived for months within areas contaminated by more than 315 tons of depleted uranium radioactive toxic waste possibly laced with trace amounts of highly radioactive Plutonium and Neptunium, almost all without any awareness, training, protective equipment, or medical evaluations; and
  • Hundreds of thousands lived outdoors for months near more than 700 burning oil well fires belching fumes and particulate matter without any protective equipment.
  • Each of these exposures took place while troops were either engaged in combat, serving in a war zone, or stationed in the volatile region for a number of months.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Exit mobile version