The Daily Background

USA Today reveals that the Pentagon somehow neglected to include 20,000 brain injuries among the list of soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. How do they manage to simply forget that many people?

At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.

The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon’s official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.
[…]
Soldiers and Marines whose wounds were discovered after they left Iraq are not added to the official casualty list, says Army Col. Robert Labutta, a neurologist and brain injury consultant for the Pentagon.

Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), who has been working on this issue, estimates that as many as 150,000 troops may have suffered head injuries in the two wars. USA Today says that most of the VA departments it contacted about brain injury statistics were resistant to releasing the information, and it took FOIA requests to get it out of them.

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