The Iraq War at 10: For U.S. Soldiers, Over 4,400 Dead and an Epidemic of Physical & Mental Wounds

Watch the full interview with Neta Crawford on Democracy Now! at "The Costs of War," a massive new report by a team of 30 economists, anthropologists, political scientists, legal experts and physicians, looks at the Iraq war's human and financial toll. The report's coauthor, Neta Crawford, professor of political science at Boston University, tells Democracy Now! about the war's impact on U.S. soldiers, leaving over 4,400 dead and many more with physical and mental wounds.

NETA CRAWFORD: Let's just first begin with the deaths of U.S. soldiers: 4,488 soldiers died in the Iraq War. That is of all kinds of causes—IEDs, which we're familiar with, but also being crushed by their own vehicles in traffic accidents. They died in the many ways that people die in war—shot and so on. Many come back wounded, complex injuries, more complex than in previous wars because of the higher survival rates in the field.

And what you also see, which you've just mentioned, are chronic respiratory problems. So, they have something called constrictive bronchiolitis, which is a disease caused by small particles, 2.5 to 10 microns, embedded inside the lungs of these returning soldiers. And that's caused by dust and burn pits. So this particulate matter gets inside the soldiers' lungs, and it decreases their ability to exercise. They're no longer elite athletes as they were when they deployed. Now they're having difficulty running a mile or two. And these soldiers also come back with higher rates of heart problems. And more than a third of them who have become subject to the Veteran Administration's care are seeking help for mental disturbances.

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