Consistent with the cover-up of the actual costs from this war
Stephen Prager for Common Dreams
As the Times reported on Monday:
In the week leading up to the Iranian attack on Friday that
killed two US soldiers and left one service member missing in Jordan, Iran
carried out three other strikes against US forces in the country.
Those attacks injured dozens of US service members and damaged several
helicopters, according to several US officials, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to discuss operational matters.
But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and
damage they inflicted.
The Pentagon’s failure to disclose full information about US
casualties is not a new development.
In the early days of the war, Defense Department officials
said fewer than a dozen American troops had been injured before abruptly acknowledging that more than 140 had been wounded
after Reuters obtained the full figures.
After six American soldiers were killed during the war’s
opening salvo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth derided the press’s inquiries about the number of
casualties, claiming they were only seeking “to make the president look bad.”
The Intercept’s Nick Turse found in April that US Central Command (CENTCOM) had
repeatedly sent outdated and incomplete casualty figures to journalists in what
one defense official referred to as a “casualty cover-up.”
As of April 1, Turse reported that more than 520 US troops had been injured, including more than 200 sailors being treated for smoke inhalation, without acknowledgment from the government.
Last week—prior to the deaths of two US soldiers in Jordan—CENTCOM said that a total of 414 service members had
been injured since the war began, mostly from traumatic brain injuries. In
total, 17 US personnel have now been killed, according to official counts.
CENTCOM spokesperson Maj. Emma Thompson said last week that
she had no update on how many troops were seriously wounded, but claimed that
“almost all” of those injured had returned to duty. She also did not say how
many troops had been wounded enough to be evacuated from the region.
The Times report notes that CENTCOM is not required to
disclose information about injured US service members publicly. And one
military official argued that doing so would provide Iran with free information
that would leave the US vulnerable to further attacks.
However, it does speak to the Trump administration’s
ever-growing secrecy as it threatens to dramatically expand the unpopular conflict.
As the Times noted, the Pentagon has provided little
information about the war in recent months, and the last major press briefing
on the war took place in early May.
The administration has blown past its initial promises to
end its operation against Iran in a matter of weeks and avoid a “forever war.”
The conflict is now into its fifth month with no end in sight.
The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal
reported this weekend that in an effort to break Iran’s control of the Strait
of Hormuz—where it began to restrict travel in response to the US-Israeli
war—Trump is planning a “wider war” that may include a possible
ground invasion of Kharg Island and other Iranian territory along the strait.
Experts have estimated that efforts to capture and occupy Iran’s
coastline would likely require hundreds of thousands of troops.
