> The families don't necessarily check with one another and compare, either.
> Which 100 families have been told? E.g., if 100 are dead according to
> official reports, when a family is notified, do they contact other families
> and make an accounting of the names of every dead soldier and add up the
> numbers? (it's kind of like those email petitions where you're supposed to
> send it to a source email at every 500 sigs. who knows if they are _really_
> 500, 1000, etc. if dozens of other people may have a sep. petition someone
> else forwarded to them.)
I appreciate your point, but I am unconvinced that people will not be able to notice that two hundred soldiers are missing beyond those declared dead by the Pentagon.
One reason for my scepticism is that even supposing that there are only, say 200 families, and supposing there is no accounting and the contacting procedure is leak-proof, 200 families in a population of roughly one million troops is enough for social networks to create an impression of greater losses than has been reported (which has been unbelievably small.) My husband X died, and his friend's family's friend died, and my other friend's father cousin was captured and tortured and so on, you quickly get a pretty large sample. Humans are very, very good at keeping tabs on this sort of thing, specially given that these are extremely salient events. The effect is all the stronger since since troops are sent from bases in geographically discrete areas, where families socialise with each other (I am assuming this is the case, that's how army family life is in Brazil.) Sooner or later someone will start asking questions.
If the casualties continue at the rates reported on iraqwar.ru, ie. between 40- 100 each day, with hundreds of injuries, whilst the press reports a only a couple, and the war drags on for months, and the occupation goes on for years, someone will start noticing the missing thousands. To say nothing of the injury list, which is even more conspicuously absent in the mainstream media (at least over here.)
To my mind, not reporting casualties is a very reckless gamble on a quick sharp war that has already not happened, and based on fairy tale notions about post war Iraq.
Having said that, the account on the site seems to reflect the mainstream and Iraqi accounts of Iraqi dead, it is, I am told, possible to spy on tactical commnications using satellites (at least the US is supposed to be able to do this), and the explanations the site offer seem very credible - dealing with fatigue, hunger, initiative, morale and other such phenomena the CNN would have us believe marines are immune from.
My TV has just blown up. I think it just could not take it any more. I guess that is lucky, it was either it or my head.
Thiago
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