zimv20
Jun 13, 2005, 12:32 PM
link (http://salon.com/news/feature/2005/06/11/body_counts/index.html)
Return of the body counts
With Americans souring on the war in Iraq, the U.S. military has started talking up the number of insurgents killed. Are we headed down the same corrupting road we did in Vietnam?
June 11, 2005 | The body counts are back. For the first time since Vietnam, the U.S. military has begun regularly reporting the number of enemy killed in the war zone -- in contradiction, apparently, to prior statements by its own top brass.
"Marines Kill 100 Fighters in Sanctuary Near Syria" was a front page headline in the Washington Post last month. The body count, coming from a Marine spokesman, was carried in other major papers that day. What was striking about the factoid, besides the elegantly even number, was that it showed how the U.S. military has increasingly released body counts in reports depicting successful operations in Iraq -- despite decrees from the highest levels of the Pentagon, throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, that "we don't do body counts."
As the bloody insurgency continues in Iraq, the U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign is yielding frustratingly few tangible ways to show progress to the American people. If anything, the insurgency seems firmly entrenched, from reports of its air-conditioned underground bunkers to its own Ho Chi Minh trail. Counting enemy bodies at least offers a number to grab on to, some sense of incremental victory.
"It may be that they regard it as being part of the good news story: that we are winning the war," John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, said about the military's stepped-up use of body counts in Iraq.
An extensive review of combat accounts from military commanders reveals that regular reporting of body counts appears to have begun with the battle for Fallujah in November 2004. U.S. Marines' assault on the insurgent stronghold, launched immediately after the U.S. presidential election, was considered critical to showing progress in the war. The Pentagon estimated 1,200 to 1,600 enemy fighters killed -- though at the time the media noted a large and "mysterious" discrepancy in the body count reported following the battle.
If history offers any clue, counting dead insurgents is a misleading endeavor that can destroy trust in the Pentagon and ultimately lead to atrocities on the battlefield. During the Vietnam War, historians say, inflated body counts that sometimes included civilians shattered the Pentagon's credibility with the American people and undercut support for that war. Former soldiers from that era say that relying too much on body counts can drive soldiers in the field to commit atrocities in order to achieve a high number of kills -- though there is no indication that is happening in Iraq.
The Pentagon maintains that it is sticking with a policy of no body counts but that commanders in the field are allowed to release the information if it helps the public's understanding of operations. Body counts, the Pentagon says, are released by field commanders only when they know the facts. "There have been several pronouncements over the years to the effect that the Department doesn't 'do body counts,' and we continue to adhere to that concept," Army Lt. Col. Barry E. Venable, a Defense Department spokesman, wrote in a statement to Salon. "The Department appropriately delegates release authority for unit activities to the units in the field," he wrote, adding that body counts have been released "in isolated instances where smaller scale engagements and timely and accurate means of battle damage assessment allowed for such counts," and when their inclusion "significantly contributed to the timely and accurate flow of information in regard to a specific unit or event."
Last November, U.S. commanders said Marines killed as many as 1,600 insurgents in the battle for Fallujah. But the New York Times' Dexter Filkins, who covered the battle, reported that Marines found "few bodies" on their patrols after the fighting -- even where the rebels chose to make a last stand. Filkins wrote that the absence of bodies remained "a mystery." Two months later, in January, the United Kingdom's Guardian reported that a nearby "martyr's cemetery" contained only 76 graves.
But since Fallujah, headlines from the Department of Defense's American Forces Information Service have touted body counts in articles about apparently successful operations. "IED Kills U.S. Soldier; Nine Terrorists Die in Firefight" read one headline in May from the Pentagon's information service. "Ten Insurgents Are Killed in New Round of Battles in Iraqi City" announced a headline in the New York Times last month, citing information from the U.S. military. In addition, the Defense Department is increasingly highlighting the number of alleged insurgents detained in raids -- though from the information released, there is no way to judge the intelligence value or guilt of the detainees labeled insurgents.
Top military officials in Washington have also begun citing body counts to support comments by Bush administration officials about the military's progress in Iraq. In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" on May 30, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgency in Iraq is "in the last throes." The day before, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation," where he said, "I think a lot of aspects in Iraq are getting better ... I think the trend lines are up." Myers pointed out that the U.S. military had killed 250 of terrorist ringleader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's "closest lieutenants."
In at least one case in Vietnam, gauging success by body count contributed to unthinkable acts. In a series that won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize, the Toledo (Ohio) Blade exposed atrocities committed by U.S. troops in the central highlands of South Vietnam in 1967, including an Army platoon known as Tiger Force. Soldiers who fought there said some atrocities were driven by the pressure to achieve a high body count. In once instance, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry were reportedly told to get 327 bodies to match the unit's moniker. Soldiers told the Blade they got the body count, in part, by killing civilians.
Return of the body counts
With Americans souring on the war in Iraq, the U.S. military has started talking up the number of insurgents killed. Are we headed down the same corrupting road we did in Vietnam?
June 11, 2005 | The body counts are back. For the first time since Vietnam, the U.S. military has begun regularly reporting the number of enemy killed in the war zone -- in contradiction, apparently, to prior statements by its own top brass.
"Marines Kill 100 Fighters in Sanctuary Near Syria" was a front page headline in the Washington Post last month. The body count, coming from a Marine spokesman, was carried in other major papers that day. What was striking about the factoid, besides the elegantly even number, was that it showed how the U.S. military has increasingly released body counts in reports depicting successful operations in Iraq -- despite decrees from the highest levels of the Pentagon, throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, that "we don't do body counts."
As the bloody insurgency continues in Iraq, the U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign is yielding frustratingly few tangible ways to show progress to the American people. If anything, the insurgency seems firmly entrenched, from reports of its air-conditioned underground bunkers to its own Ho Chi Minh trail. Counting enemy bodies at least offers a number to grab on to, some sense of incremental victory.
"It may be that they regard it as being part of the good news story: that we are winning the war," John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, said about the military's stepped-up use of body counts in Iraq.
An extensive review of combat accounts from military commanders reveals that regular reporting of body counts appears to have begun with the battle for Fallujah in November 2004. U.S. Marines' assault on the insurgent stronghold, launched immediately after the U.S. presidential election, was considered critical to showing progress in the war. The Pentagon estimated 1,200 to 1,600 enemy fighters killed -- though at the time the media noted a large and "mysterious" discrepancy in the body count reported following the battle.
If history offers any clue, counting dead insurgents is a misleading endeavor that can destroy trust in the Pentagon and ultimately lead to atrocities on the battlefield. During the Vietnam War, historians say, inflated body counts that sometimes included civilians shattered the Pentagon's credibility with the American people and undercut support for that war. Former soldiers from that era say that relying too much on body counts can drive soldiers in the field to commit atrocities in order to achieve a high number of kills -- though there is no indication that is happening in Iraq.
The Pentagon maintains that it is sticking with a policy of no body counts but that commanders in the field are allowed to release the information if it helps the public's understanding of operations. Body counts, the Pentagon says, are released by field commanders only when they know the facts. "There have been several pronouncements over the years to the effect that the Department doesn't 'do body counts,' and we continue to adhere to that concept," Army Lt. Col. Barry E. Venable, a Defense Department spokesman, wrote in a statement to Salon. "The Department appropriately delegates release authority for unit activities to the units in the field," he wrote, adding that body counts have been released "in isolated instances where smaller scale engagements and timely and accurate means of battle damage assessment allowed for such counts," and when their inclusion "significantly contributed to the timely and accurate flow of information in regard to a specific unit or event."
Last November, U.S. commanders said Marines killed as many as 1,600 insurgents in the battle for Fallujah. But the New York Times' Dexter Filkins, who covered the battle, reported that Marines found "few bodies" on their patrols after the fighting -- even where the rebels chose to make a last stand. Filkins wrote that the absence of bodies remained "a mystery." Two months later, in January, the United Kingdom's Guardian reported that a nearby "martyr's cemetery" contained only 76 graves.
But since Fallujah, headlines from the Department of Defense's American Forces Information Service have touted body counts in articles about apparently successful operations. "IED Kills U.S. Soldier; Nine Terrorists Die in Firefight" read one headline in May from the Pentagon's information service. "Ten Insurgents Are Killed in New Round of Battles in Iraqi City" announced a headline in the New York Times last month, citing information from the U.S. military. In addition, the Defense Department is increasingly highlighting the number of alleged insurgents detained in raids -- though from the information released, there is no way to judge the intelligence value or guilt of the detainees labeled insurgents.
Top military officials in Washington have also begun citing body counts to support comments by Bush administration officials about the military's progress in Iraq. In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" on May 30, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgency in Iraq is "in the last throes." The day before, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation," where he said, "I think a lot of aspects in Iraq are getting better ... I think the trend lines are up." Myers pointed out that the U.S. military had killed 250 of terrorist ringleader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's "closest lieutenants."
In at least one case in Vietnam, gauging success by body count contributed to unthinkable acts. In a series that won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize, the Toledo (Ohio) Blade exposed atrocities committed by U.S. troops in the central highlands of South Vietnam in 1967, including an Army platoon known as Tiger Force. Soldiers who fought there said some atrocities were driven by the pressure to achieve a high body count. In once instance, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry were reportedly told to get 327 bodies to match the unit's moniker. Soldiers told the Blade they got the body count, in part, by killing civilians.
