US dead in Iraq undercounted - 28% higher than reported in official DOD reports

At the year end Dec. 31, 2007, the latest figures for deaths of US citizens in Iraq that are available show ; (Iraq Coalition Casualties )

353 US civilian contractors working for the U.S. government were killed in Iraq in 2007, a 17% increase over 2006. (The US Labour Department does not provide a breakdown by nationality - They actually record the number of insurance claims filed with the Labour Department's Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation. Workers whose families or employers do not seek compensation are not counted. )

1,123 U.S. civilian contractors have died in Iraq since the war started in March 2003.The US Labour Department does not provide a breakdown by nationality.Ditto above.

901 U.S. troops died in Iraq in 2007, the highest total for any year since the war started and a 10 percent increase over 2006.

3,954 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began. (as at 31/12/08 last official figures)

Their are 13% more contractors working in in Q4 compared with Q3 2007 of those Only about 27,000 of the 155,000 contractors working in Iraq are Americans

S.1548 the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 included in it's dense paragraphs of boondoggle and nornswoggling to cosset and pamper the Military industrial complex requires the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to maintain a database recording how many contractors are working in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the number killed and wounded in those two conflicts.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., has been fighting for this accounting of the civilian dead for years (and she wants a date to withdraw Troops as well). It's inclusion in the Bill is down to her.

Civilian contractors killed in Iraq are often eligible - and many have received - the defense secretary's Medal for the Defense of Freedom, the so-called Purple Heart for civilians working on behalf of the military - but still their names are left off the Pentagon's Iraq casualty rolls.

If they were counted, the U.S. military's official casualty figures - would be 28% higher. (3,954 +1, 123)

Nor must we forget the dead Iraqi's the IBC hopelessly understates the numbers but is a reminder that someone is making the effort - the Coalition of the Willing invaders casually kills/ shoots/ strafes civilians at will.