“A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.” (New York Times )
Add to that the proportion of roadside bombing/IED deaths attributable to inadequate armoring on U.S. military vehicles and perhaps half of the 2200-plus families of American GIs lost in Iraq ought to realize that the murderers of their sons and daughters are Americans.
Then there are the other half of the grieving families who should consider that, in another sense, all the deaths in Iraq have been needless deaths (even if you believe in the necessity for ‘just war’ at all), based as this war has been on craven deception, cowardice and criminal intent on the part of the Bush cabal.
And we should keep in mind as well that the tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian victims don’t have any armour.
