How many American soldiers have died outside Iraq?

April 30, 2007 12:01 PM

How many American soldiers who served in this Iraq war have died since leaving Iraq (German hospitals, American hospitals, at home etc.) ?

Some unverified reports have the number as high as 7,500.

posted by specialk420 to Law & Government (7 answers total)

They purposely don't release that information. For a dead soldier to be an Iraq casualty, he or she has to die in Iraq. If you're airlifted out to Germany and die there, you're not an Iraq casualty.

And then, just lately, they've started redefining civilian casualties as being 'ones that aren't killed by car bombs or explosive devices'.

If at first you don't succeed, redefine casualty.
posted by Malor at 12:35 PM on April 30, 2007

The list.

The military does report deaths outside of Iraq. For instance: "-- Army Spc. Curtis R. Spivey, 25, of Chula Vista, Calif., died April 2 in San Diego of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations on Sept. 16 in Baghdad. Spivey was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. "

This rumor has been around for years. It implies that there are thousands of families out there that are happy that their son or daughter isn't on the list of official fatalities.
posted by smackfu at 2:28 PM on April 30, 2007

135, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. "Some have claimed that The Department of Defense does not report these deaths, they are obviously mistaken. Note: these deaths are included in our overall totals."
posted by kirkaracha at 2:30 PM on April 30, 2007

This war is tricky in a way that the Bush administration is also contracting soldiers. which means there are higher number of casualties than reported. Because we pay close to half billion dollars to contracted soldiers, their deaths don't count and the Bush administration is able to get away with lower number.

These contracted soldiers are, I should mention, not all from the U.S. This company contracts soldiers from other countries. So not everybody's US casualty.

Hope this helps. You should really take into consideration the civilians that die as well.
posted by icollectpurses at 4:57 PM on April 30, 2007

And then, just lately, they've started redefining civilian casualties as being 'ones that aren't killed by car bombs or explosive devices'.

Really? I've heard the generals citing a drop in sectarian killings exclusive of car bombs, but are they giving figures for total civilian casualties?
posted by thrako at 5:25 PM on April 30, 2007

On February 23, 2007, the Associated Press reported 769 contractor deaths and 3,367 injuries. (That includes all contractors, not just military contractors.) "The AP had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain figures on pre-2006 civilian deaths and injuries from the Labor Department." The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count has a partial list of contractors killed in Iraq.

Estimates of security contractors in Iraq run from 20,000 to 100,000. The UK deployed 45,000 troops during the invasion and had approximately 7,100 troops in Iraq as of February 2007.

If at first you don't succeed, redefine casualty.

The term "casualty" has traditionally included killed and wounded ("loss in numerical strength through any cause"), but I've seen it used during the Iraq War to only include killed.

Based on the latest Iraq Coalition Casualty Count figures and the February 2007 AP story, there have been 4,391 coalition fatalities and 28,279 coalition wounded, for a total of 32,670 casualties.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:38 PM on April 30, 2007

TBRNews report that they total is about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005. May be speculative
posted by growabrain at 6:46 PM on April 30, 2007