Anyone care to guess the real numbers of American casualties?

US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered at least 192 combat casualties in the week ending August 7, as total casualties reached at least 57,994. The total includes 30,300 killed or wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as “hostile” causes and 27,694 (this number over a month old) more dead and injured from “non-hostile” causes.

US media divert attention from the actual cost in American life and limb by routinely reporting only the total killed (3,679 as of Aug. 7) and rarely mentioning the 27,279 wounded in combat. To further minimize public perception of the cost, they cover for the Pentagon by ignoring the 27,046 military victims of as accidents and illness serious enough to require medical evacuation (through June 30), although the 3,679 reported deaths include 648 (down one last week) who died from those same causes, including 116 suicides.

Although not defined as “casualties” since they have been discharged from active duty, as of the end of 2006 more than 180,000 U.S. military veterans of Iraq and Afganistan had filed disability claims.