Wolfowitz Does Not Know How Many US Soldiers He has Sent to their Deaths



In congressional testimony on Thursday, deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, the major architect of the Iraq war, demonstrated appalling ignorance of the statistics on US casualties in Iraq. He said he thought that 500 US soldiers had lost their lives since the beginning of the war, of whom 350 were combat deaths. The true figures as of that date were 724 US troops dead of which 522 were combat deaths. This slip is absolutely inexcusable, and the families of the deceased soldiers have a right to ask for Wolfowitz's resignation over it. If there is one statistic he should know every day, it is this one. Every ordinary American, whether for or against the war, should know it. But Wolfowitz and his crew have hidden from the public the arrival of the coffins at Dover Air Force Base so assiduously that they have now even fooled themselves, and so made themselves look like fools. You can believe the cost is worth it. You cannot underestimate the cost.