by Feed your head with a play by Pamela Olson

Created on: March 03, 2009

Let The Students Decide
Is the failure to count the dead an attempt to divert the moral consequences of a war of choice?

The United States routinely uses and relies on random cluster surveys. America used it to estimate causalities, most recently in the Congo. The U.S. Secretary of State has often used random cluster surveys. Yet, when random cluster surveys were done in Iraq by a team of epidemiologists led by American and Iraqi health professionals, it was dismissed in the U.S. Probably due to its enormous scale of mayhem that is just too sickening to accept in the results determined of innocent civilian dead. The study had to be published in the British medical Journal The Lancet.

It is the chain of American command that is at fault for innocent deaths, not the American troops. American General Tommy Frank say "We don't do body counts," although he knows it is bad military strategy. He does because, as all active and reserve duty does, his chain of command ordered him to.

It was in 2003, that General Franks stated "We don't do body counts." He was talking about not counting the dead bodies of "the enemy" and civilians. In the Arab and Muslim world especially, America's policy of only counting American and its "Allies" dead as all that is necessary or useful, only fuels more terrorism against America. This cavalier policy also does not sit well with other countries as it is interpreted that America just doesn't care about innocent civilian deaths. General Franks' statement of American policy is neglect. America's policy does not even acknowledge that other deaths are occurring, not that those deaths are important enough to investigate. As a veteran, I believe that sort of policy undermines any war effort. It is especially troubling to me when this War on Terrorism was, and remains, carried out in a country invaded for phony reasons. America continues to occupy Iraq. America's invasion, continued occupation and "We don't do body counts," to me, have an oily veneer of induced fear covering corporate self-righteousness.

America's neglect, "We don't do body counts," is leaving a troublesome legacy that is only fostering more terrorism against America. In addition, we, the American people, have a right to know what is being done in our name. That, an American free press, is one of the freedoms I served America for. When we learn from foreign news about Abu Ghraib and civilian deaths America caused, it makes me think we have been lied to by our chosen government and

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