We are having trouble getting control over the sinking feeling that overcomes us in response to the news out of Iraq this month. Our impression is that, as ominous as things sound, the reality over there is even worse. It seems to us we read somewhere a while back that the death count of U.S. troops is not a reliable indicator of the level of mayhem our men and women in uniform are actually experiencing. Our understanding is that advances in battlefield medicine are saving many more lives than was possible with the same injuries in Vietnam. The flip side to this, of course, is that, while spared from death, many of our troops will now live with debilitating injuries.
The problem with the casualty reports we've seen -- 702 U.S. troops dead, 3,269 wounded in action as of today, according to CNN.com -- is that the wounded aren't classified by severity. As far as we can tell, the 3,269 includes everything from minor flesh wounds to permanent disfigurement or paralysis. That doesn't tell us much. So, what's the information we'd like to see reported? We'd like to know how many soldiers have been injured to the extent that they'll likely never again be fit for combat duty. That would be the best measure of the true human cost -- in terms of American blood spilled -- of the conflct. And we doubt it would make us feel any better about the job the Bush administration did in preparing for war.
