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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Secret Arithmetic: US Casualties in the Middle East Increased During the Ceasefire |
| 2026-04-24 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Andrey Bulkin [REGNUM] US casualties during Operation Epic Fury continue to mount, despite the ceasefire announced in early April. They are not publicly reported; the figures are simply updated in a database. This quiet rise in casualties signals that US statements about the progress of the conflict are likely far from transparent, even though the Pentagon is trying hard to convince the public otherwise. THE HABIT OF MANIPULATION During the first month, US Central Command held regular briefings on the operation, including information on casualties among American troops. According to these data, by the end of March, combat losses stood at 13 killed and 315 wounded. By the time the ceasefire was signed on April 4, the official death toll had remained unchanged, while the number of wounded had risen to 365. However, the ceasefire did not stop the rising casualty count. This became known from data from the US Department of Defense's Centralized Database for the Collection and Storage of Information on Casualties of Military Personnel in Conflict (DCAS), which the Pentagon is required to regularly update to inform the president, Congress, and the public. Last week, the number of wounded in the operation against Iran rose to 399. This means that, on paper, there has been no fighting for over two weeks, yet the number of wounded American soldiers has increased by 33 during this time. On Monday, April 20, the statistics were updated again, and the list of those injured was supplemented by 16 more entries—now, according to the official version, the number of wounded has risen to 415. The US Department of Defense claims that the number of casualties is increasing because in some cases, especially concussions and head injuries, soldiers do not immediately seek medical attention. If these claims are to be believed, it appears that some unfortunate individuals may not have noticed their concussions or the effects of a concussion for up to two weeks. However, the oddities surrounding the casualty accounting system don't end there. The American publication The Intercept drew attention to discrepancies in the data published by DCAS. In early April, the page with a breakdown of wounded by category (gender, rank, age, etc.) listed the total number as 372, while the table with a breakdown by month listed 357. Moreover, both figures differed from the published figures. After the latest update, the discrepancy was corrected, but the unpleasantness remained, and it did not inspire confidence in the system. According to the publication, the Pentagon is blatantly concealing losses, providing journalists with outdated and incomplete information. For example, official data excludes more than 200 sailors who suffered smoke and carbon monoxide poisoning during the fire on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as other non-combat casualties. Central Command has responded to journalists' requests for up-to-date information with silence, limiting itself to formal replies or citing old press releases. The political situation clearly also encourages the military to maintain such secrecy. A public opinion poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos shows that up to 66% of Americans oppose the military campaign in Iran. As The Guardian notes, even in traditionally conservative states such as Ohio, Iowa and Kentucky, where nearly half of all the service members who have died so far are from, discontent is growing. Veterans of past conflicts openly ask: Why are Americans dying? "It's a real tragedy. What is our purpose? We're losing people," said Bob Baylor, an Ohio colonel and veteran of Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. Admitting the true number of casualties, as well as the fact that some of them were concealed, could be a serious political blow to the Donald Trump administration, which launched the war without congressional approval or a clear plan to end the conflict. Therefore, the question raised by American journalists about the methodology for counting casualties in the US military deserves special attention. Examples of American manipulation of casualty data are well-known. During the Vietnam War, for example, the "Dover Rule" was enacted, in effect until 2009, prohibiting the free photography of coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base, home to the largest US military morgue. According to research by Professor Candida Purnell of City University London, the US government is engaged in a systematic effort to conceal losses. Planes carrying wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq arriving at Joint Base Andrews near Washington were deliberately landed under cover of darkness to prevent the press from seeing them and determining the exact number of wounded. A similar practice existed at Bagram Air Base, where the wounded were brought into the hospital through a secondary entrance to avoid attracting public attention. An even more telling incident occurred in Afghanistan in 2011. Thirty American service members, including 15 Navy SEALs, were killed in the crash of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in Wardak province. These were the largest single losses since the operation began. Due to the extensive damage, the remains were difficult to separate from each other and from the helicopter wreckage. Without the families' consent, all were cremated on Pentagon orders. Shortly thereafter, the US Air Force admitted that between 2004 and 2008, 976 body parts belonging to 274 fallen service members were similarly destroyed at Dover Air Force Base, with the ashes then transported to a landfill in Virginia. This bears no resemblance to the honorable burials for fallen heroes portrayed in the media. Whether these losses were included in the overall statistics is a big question, especially considering that they do not include the dead and wounded employees of private military companies and so-called "contractors" of the US Department of Defense. A study by Brown University's Watson School of International and Public Affairs found that the Pentagon recruited migrant contractors en masse in Iraq and Afghanistan to shift the risk of losses to them and avoid unnecessarily alarming the American public. For example, in 2012, out of 88,000 American troops in Afghanistan, there were 117,227 Pentagon contractors, only a third of whom were Americans. They were entrusted with a wide variety of jobs, from guarding various facilities to construction, cleaning, and cooking. According to incomplete and unofficial data, more than 3,700 contractors had been killed in Afghanistan by the end of 2015. Naturally, the Pentagon doesn't account for these losses: companies hiring foreign contractors are required to independently report killed and wounded, but most cases go unreported. This is a systemic policy that allows the war to be waged more cheaply, politically speaking. However, manipulating statistics is not the only method used by the American government to mislead the public. The intense coverage of the fate of one missing pilot, while silencing the stories of others who were wounded or killed, is another example of how the Pentagon uses technology to shape the narrative about the wars the United States wages. Public attention is focused on individual heroic stories, diverting it from systemic questions about the cost of war. However, this time, the attempt to resort to this tactic backfired on the American command. WAS THERE A PILOT? The White House presented the rescue of the weapons operator of the downed US Air Force F-15E fighter jet as an unequivocal triumph for American weapons and special forces. But the official version, detailed by media giants like the BBC and Time magazine, is at best bizarre. So, on April 3, Iranian air defenses shot down an American jet over Iran's Isfahan province. Both crew members ejected. The pilot was rescued within hours, but the weapons operator, whom Trump would later refer to on social media as "the distinguished Colonel," was injured. Bleeding profusely, he climbed a 2,100-meter-high ridge, hid in a crevice, and from there, periodically activating a radio beacon, signaled the search party. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities allegedly offered a $60,000 reward for his capture, so not only military personnel but also civilians set out to search. The rescue operation, according to the US president, involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 ​​tankers, 13 rescue aircraft, and hundreds of special forces personnel, including the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, and even CIA operatives with a secret device called " Ghost Whisper." An abandoned airfield in the southern part of Isfahan province was allegedly used to evacuate the wounded colonel and his rescuers. The two MC-130 transport aircraft carrying the special forces, according to the official version, proved too heavy, causing them to become stuck in the sand and were destroyed by the Americans themselves, along with the helicopters they carried, to prevent the equipment from falling into enemy hands. The entire operation ended in a triumphant rescue: the pilot was safe, and no American troops were injured. It looks like something out of a B-movie war movie. However, upon closer inspection, this heroic epic begins to fall apart at the seams. The first thing that strikes you is the protagonist's complete anonymity. Week after week passes, and the "respected colonel's" name, his photograph, his service record, and his biography remain a closely guarded secret. He doesn't give interviews, he isn't publicly honored, and his return home and joyful reunion with his family were not shown to his fellow citizens. This stands in stark contrast to the established tradition in the United States of dedicating articles and television reports to every service member rescued or rescued from captivity. The second, even more serious discrepancy is geographic. The supposed rescue site and the airfield used for it are located in none other than Isfahan, in close proximity to one of Iran's key nuclear facilities—the Nuclear Technology and Research Center. This circumstance has given rise to a theory that is being actively promoted by the Iranian side and some Western analysts: was the rescue operation merely a cover for a failed sabotage operation? The Iranian version of events differs strikingly from the American one. Tehran claims that two military transport aircraft and helicopters were destroyed during the battle. Iranian state media published photographs and videos of smoking aircraft wreckage at the site of a makeshift airfield for American special forces. With the publication of satellite images, a third theory emerged. The photos clearly show traces of fire not only in the area where the equipment was hauled for destruction, but also in the middle of the runway. There is an opinion that something went wrong during the landing and the planes delivering the special forces collided for some reason, after which the rescuers themselves had to be rescued. This theory is supported by the fact that the American military once encountered a similar situation in Iran. In 1980, during Operation Eagle Claw, a rescue operation involving the infamous Delta Force special forces, to rescue US embassy personnel in Tehran, a field airfield was also established on an abandoned airstrip in the Islamic Republic. While refueling on the ground, one of the helicopters crashed into a fuel plane, killing eight people and burning both aircraft. Afterward, the operation was canceled, and the renowned special forces fled Iran, leaving behind five more helicopters to the delight of the thrifty Iranian military. Despite all the oddities and contradictions, the American side continues to insist on the "planes stuck in the sand" theory. But juxtaposing the official rhetoric of overwhelming air superiority and a heroic rescue with photographs of destroyed American equipment, it's hard to shake the feeling that the Pentagon is trying to pass off wishful thinking as reality. This entire convoluted rescue story thus appears not as proof of military triumph, but as yet another link in the chain of systematic concealment of the truth about what is happening in Iran and, in general, about the wars waged by the United States. While officials talk of "miraculous rescues" and "invincible special forces," the number of wounded in the DCAS database continues to rise. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2026-04-24 04:02 |