PEN-L message, Give the count!

Washington, DC: Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader today accused President Bush of "compounding his deception" on Iraq "by not reporting the fuller price paid by our sons and daughters in Iraq to parents, friends, relatives and their fellow Americans."

Nader had requested a full accounting of casualties on June 30th-including fatalities, the injured, the sick, and the mentally afflicted, both in combat and non-combat activities in the Iraq war and occupation. Information regarding the full impact of the Iraq war and occupation has not been provided to the American public.

September 8, 2004

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

This June 30th, I wrote to you requesting that you provide the American public with a full accounting of American casualties in Iraq since the invasion. The request, included with this letter, sought information on fatalities, the injured, the sick, and the mentally afflicted, both in combat and non-combat activities in the Iraq War and occupation.

Today, as we sadly pass the milestone of 1,000 fatalities in Iraq, I renew my request for a full accounting of casualties in Iraq.

In addition to plunging our nation into war on a platform of deceptions, misinformation and outright falsehoods you now are compounding your deception by not reporting the fuller price paid by our sons and daughters in Iraq to the parents, friends, relatives and their fellow Americans. I have asked Senator John Kerry to join with me in demanding that this human toll be fully disclosed and kept up to date for the American people.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

June 30, 2004

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush,

This is a request for you, as the Commander-in-Chief, to provide the American people with a full accounting of the American casualties in Iraq since the invasion-including fatalities, the injured, the sick, and the mentally afflicted (i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder).

On June 18th, PBS' Now reported that the Pentagon does not have a comprehensive accounting of the human toll of the war from the American side, not to mention the larger toll on the Iraqi people. If you read the transcript of that report you will see that, according to the chief Pentagon spokesman, your Administration will only report the strictly combat-related fatalities and injuries. Neither non-combat deaths and injuries nor disease-connected sicknesses nor mental illnesses are reported. Such a failure to fully disclose the true number of casualties-including non-combat mortality and morbidity-to the American people and the media is unworthy of your Presidency. For, consider, there would be neither trauma nor illnesses-physical or mental-were it not for the invasion. As a matter of record, any distinction between combat and non-combat casualties in Iraq is immaterial. Every last one of these casualties is inextricably tied to events in that military theatre.

As of June 18th, the Pentagon reports that 922 Americans have lost their lives and 5,457 have been wounded in action. UPI investigations editor Mark Benjamin, who has traveled to American military bases to report on these casualty counts, said in a Now interview:
The Pentagon has made the numbers, and when I say the numbers, I mean the casualty numbers, into such a morass of figures, that they have made it virtually impossible for reporters and the American public to figure out what's going on.

Now's Michele Mitchell adds: "What's missing in the Pentagon's count of the wounded are all the other soldiers-at least 11,000 or more, injured or sickened in what the Pentagon considers non-combat circumstances." These estimates also do not account for soldiers becoming stricken with serious mental afflictions.

One condition that illuminates the gaping omissions in your Administration's casualty reporting is the disease known as Leishmaniasis. Over 500 U.S. Troops in Iraq have been infected with Leishmania parasites, which are transmitted by bloodsucking sand flies. As of February 2004, some 2,000 soldiers had been diagnosed with the cutaneous form of the disease, which causes painful and disfiguring skin lesions. Additionally, Leishmania are capable of spreading to visceral organs; such cases can be fatal. There is no available vaccine and no safe, effective chemotherapy. Moreover, according to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, there is potential that the parasites might enter our nation's blood supply. Not surprisingly, there is little research funding for this disease.

I call on you to report to the American people the full casualty toll paid by their sons and daughters for this war of choice-based on fabrications, deceptions, and unfounded assertions, as is now so thoroughly documented. I have been to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I have the pictures of many of the fallen soldiers on my table. You owe their memory, their present agony, and their families the simple decency of recognizing their numbers. Will you do so?

Sincerely,