What is the human cost of the Iraq war? There have been 3,969 American military deaths, not including private contractors, and another 29,038 American military have been wounded. There are huge variances in the estimates of Iraqi casualties depending on the organization collecting the data: It is a difficult task in a war-torn country. Estimates range from 80,932 to 1,168,058 for Iraqi deaths resulting from the war. Nobody seems to be documenting the total number of wounded Iraqis, but the usual calculation in wartime is 10 to 20 times the number killed. This translates to 800,000 at a minimum and is probably an underestimation.

These numbers represent a huge loss of human potential, but what about the effect on the human psyche that is less visible and often more difficult to treat than physical wounds?

Veterans Affairs says that one in five Iraq veterans suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. How does this effect their families? According to Mother Jones magazine (April 2007), there was a 14 percent increase in divorce rates and an increase in calls to military crisis lines from 50 to 600 in 2006. Despite this, the government has required soldiers to do multiple or extended deployments.

Now, more stress coupled with cutbacks in funding for the VA can result in higher suicide rates. In 2006 there were 22 Iraq war veterans who committed suicide and an estimated 70 suicides in 2007. According to The Washington Post’s Dana Priest, on Jan. 31, 2007, suicides reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980. As a psychiatric nurse working in a community health clinic I can assure you that our local communities are dealing with many of these “invisible” wounds.

The number of estimated Iraqi casualties means that almost 20 percent of all Iraqi households have experienced a death or a wounded family member as a result of the war. According to the same Mother Jones issue, a 2006 survey of children in Baghdad found that 47 percent had experienced a major traumatic event and 14 percent had PTSD.

According to an American psychiatrist Iraqis are suffering from epidemic levels of PTSD. Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist who covered the occupation in Iraq between 2003 and 2005, received an e-mail from one of his Iraqi friends discussing the success of the surge on his country which illuminates these horrors. The e-mail asks many questions: “What kind of normal life are the media referring to where people live in a cage of concrete walls [referring to the concrete walls being erected by the Americans around Baghdad neighborhoods], guarded by their kidnappers, killers and occupation forces? What kind of normal life can you live where tens of your relatives and your beloved ones are either missing or in jail and you don’t know if they are still alive or, after tortured, have been thrown unidentified in the dumpsters?”

The mainstream media influence our interpretation of the war by what they focus on and what they minimize or exclude. The mainstream media have focused more on suicide bombers versus the U.S. military dropping 100,000 tons of bombs on the village of Jubour. Is dropping bombs more acceptable because death is delivered to people by precision? Aren’t both acts barbaric?

The media portray the surge as successful. What represents success in this situation? Less violence measured by fewer U.S. deaths, fewer Iraqi deaths, fewer suicide bombing or fewer bombs dropped by the U.S. military?

Just as disturbing is the tendency to punish the victims of this war, both Americans and Iraqis, by cutting funds to the VA and telling the Iraqis that the “blank check” that the Bush administration gave them is going to end. The real human cost of this war is that the media have framed this war in such a way that makes it easy to forget who we are as humans and what our responsibilities are.

However, there are many who haven’t forgotten and are willing to stand together to stop this occupation that undermines our humanity and real security. On the fifth anniversary of the “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq in March the Peace and Justice Center has organized local events that are planned as part of national commemorations by Iraq war veterans and others to speak out about the cost of this war.

For information call 942-9343 or visit www.peacectr.org

Katrina Bisheimer is a nurse with a specialty in psychiatry and mental health. She is currently working in a community health clinic that provides services to Bangor and surrounding areas. She works in Bangor and Dover-Foxcroft.