Dispatch from Baghdad

"We get reports that many more US soldiers are dying than the pentagon admits, perhaps as many as five a day".

http://www.anitaroddick.com/weblog/weblogdetail.jsp?title=null&id=580

(excellent and fascinating read, this paints a picture of total hell and chaos, contrast this with what Bremer says is going on in iraq)

the troops are suffering for lack of water. Probably because the whole thing has been privatized by our fearless leader! They are being allowed 2 plus liters of water per day...temps ranging from 120 to 140, wearing helmets and full combat gear and not enough water to sustain them.

The administration is very big on complimenting the troops...too bad they don't put their money where their mouths are! The most basic necessities are being ignored: decent food, enough water, and air conditioners.

We live in Arizona. Right now our temps are running about 110-116 (a record the other day!) and we know just how bad it must be for these guys. We're in shorts and tee shirts, have AC, good food and plenty of cold water plus enough for showers. My heart breaks when I read the letters from the servicemen.

rest of it is obviously a very accurate description of life in Baghdad these days. Bremer probably never ventures out into the street and probably neither has any reporter for any major U.S. media company.

(whatever that means). But 5 a day, due to all sources, in conditions like this? That doesn't sound "over the top" to me. Strokes, heart attacks, "mystery" illnesses, suicides, "car accisdents", falling off of buildings, drownings - yeah, it could be real close.

the pentagon is covering up casualties, count on it.

The six huge explosions? nightly mortar attacks? remember the july 4th mortar attacks that "wounded" 18 in one attack ?

I really doubt the one a day figure.

It is said there have been about 700 soldiers brought back to the USA as injured and run through Walter Reed.

700 soldiers in 5 months is about 150 days. That's an average of close to 5 soldiers per day since day #1 that are injured bad enough to have to come back here to go to Walter Reed Medical Center.

Now figure that there are PLENTY more soliders who have returned as injured but not bad enough to go to Walter Reed.

I think 5 a day dead sounds about right........

But I thought I saw a report here (from estripes?) weeks ago that said well over 2000 troops had been treated in a US military hospital in Germany. I believe that figure includes all troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq, in other words, since Oct./Nov. 2001.

And, not to be a pain-in-the-ass corrector, but I believe it's Cogito ergo sum, not Cognito ergo sum...;-)

"And, finally, the sun. I think I can deal with the 115 (or more) degree heat, but the sun is piercing through the dry air. I'm OK, but 20 minutes of it makes me somewhat sunburned. I've never felt anything like it. It adds so much tension to the air."

Is it any wonder the troops are dissing the commander-in-chief? I can not imagine living in those conditions! Five a day may be an understatement.

We spent the better part of this afternoon in the middle of a firefight. We left our hotel at around 1 pm, headed for the Jordanian embassy, which was hit by a car bomb early this morning. As we drove out, we saw a tall column of thick black smoke rising straight up into the windless sky just a mile or two away. We told our driver to turn around and we sped to the scene. We were the first journalists there.


The assault took place on al-Karada street, which has a lot of shops selling electronic equipment such as refrigerators and air conditioners. We later learned that U.S. troops, to their misfortune, are fond of stopping their patrols there and going shopping for porn DVDs sold by street vendors.


As we left the scene, an old shopowner told us that he knew this was going happen at some point. The Americans it seemed, were always stopping here to buy porn DVDs, which they take back to their bases to watch on laptops. Even though Muslims don't like this, poverty is so bad that there is always someone willing to make the sale. These discs are sold in the open in front of women and children, and it makes the locals very angry. Whatever the propriety of porn, or Muslim conceptions of women and sex, I can't believe the Americans would be stupid enough to do this. Or maybe I can believe it.


http://www.anitaroddick.com/weblog/weblogdetail.jsp?title=null&id=581

(Wow, I've been looking for a true acount of WTF is really happening over there. SAY IT ISN"T SO!)