Dead American Contractors in Iraq

Last year I ran another blog called: " Operation Milestone Millstone" - it was:

an attempt to bring media attention to the fact that we are about to cross another milestone in iraq - 2000 dead american soldiers AND contractors. most of the attention so far has been on dead soldiers - but dead american contractors are also dead victims of Bush and the rest of The Mission Accomplices

I had 'hoped' to resurrect the blog as we crossed the (total) 3000 number, but I couldn't find the employee mortality numbers anywhere, and the reporting of the dead contractors seemed to disappear.

Last week, Eli from Left I on the News wrote:

If you read the newspapers or listen to the broadcast media in the United States, you'll think that the number of deaths in Iraq on "our side" (very strong quotes on that one) is 2710, and you'll think that it's approaching, but won't surpass for a few months, the "3,000" killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
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In March, 2005, when the media was reporting the 1500th American death, I noted that the actual total was more than 2,000. When the supposed death toll hit 2,000, I noted that 428 contractors had to be added to that total. That number 428 comes from the Department of Labor, and as far as I can tell it isn't an openly public number (i.e., I can't find it on a website), but seems to be obtainable by reporters. I think it includes only American contractors, making it far short of the real total, but I can't be sure of that.

And now a report on ABC News (not online) says that number is up to 643 (with the attribution again to the Dept. of Labor). 643 members of... privatized occupations. Bringing the real number of coalition fatalities to 3353, well-above the number killed on 9/11.

In other words, the actual American deaths in Iraq is much higher than your silly corpmedia actually tells you - according to Eli's numbers, 24% higher.

For the record, from memory, those Dept. of Labor numbers actually record employee deaths of American companies in Iraq, which includes non-American employees (not that I particularly care about the nationality of dead people.) My guesstimate is that approximately one third of the 643 dead contractors are American.

Also from memory, the only reason the Dept. of Labor actually records these deaths is for insurance purposes.

For more on war-profiteering, Robert Greenwald's Iraq For Sale opens on Sunday