The Pentagon is under fire for a self-inflicted wound: its refusal to acknowledge that several U.S. special operations commandos were wounded in action in the war against the Islamic State.
It began with a question at a June 16 Pentagon briefing, when a reporter from CNN asked about the Defense Department’s published casualty count, which showed an increase of one in the wounded column.
Spokesman Peter Cook acknowledged that there had been “some service members who may have been injured and gone right back into the fight,” but said it was not the Pentagon’s policy to routinely provide information on wounded. He promised to look into it, and provide a more precise answer.
CNN then published a story that said four U.S. military advisers were “lightly wounded” in Syria on June 9, when an anti-tank round hit a vehicle near their position. It was another incident demonstrating that while U.S. troops are supposedly not on the front lines, they are often in the line of fire.
In a Pentagon briefing Tuesday, Cook took a harder line by refusing to confirm whether any U.S. troops were wounded, citing Pentagon policy.
“For a variety of reasons, we do not provide information on wounded service members and we’re going to continue to stick to that, again, because we don’t want to provide information to the enemy that might be helpful, we have privacy concerns that we want to address,” he said.
But the Pentagon seems to have no consistent policy on making public this information, which has opened it up to criticism.
For example, the Pentagon does release and post on a public website aggregate casualty figures, which show that in Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria there have been 18 deaths and 16 wounded troops. Of the 18 deaths, only three were the result of hostile action.
The Pentagon also acknowledges how many U.S. troops are wounded when it releases details about a specific attack or operation. Additionally, it has confirmed at least two prior incidents of wounded in action, which were not part of offensive operations.
On May 31, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis confirmed two U.S. service members were wounded by “indirect fire” while conducting their “advise and assist” mission in separate attacks in Iraq and Syria.
The decision to release some, but not all, of this information has led to charges that it is selectively hiding the extent of U.S. involvement in combat operations, and minimizing the cost of war.
“The Pentagon’s argument would make more sense if the Defense Department didn’t routinely announce battlefield deaths. Despite rumors to the contrary, the Pentagon generally has been straightforward about acknowledging U.S. deaths in post-9/11 combat,” writes veteran defense correspondent Mark Thompson in Time Magazine.
“Peculiarly, the Pentagon is saying that acknowledging specific U.S. battlefield wounded is a bigger intelligence bonanza for U.S. foes than announcing specific U.S. battlefield deaths.”
At an event in Fort Knox, Kentucky, Defense Secretary Ash Carter defended the policy of not confirming the circumstances under which U.S. troops are wounded in battle, insisting it was a long-standing policy that hasn’t changed, and won’t change.
“We do not disclose all features of all battlefield wounds. And there are a number of reasons for that. But one that anybody can understand and relate to is, we don’t disclose somebody’s personal injuries,” Carter said in response to a reporter’s question.
“That can be a very private personal and medical matter for an individual. It’s not up to us to disclose it. For that and many other reasons we don’t do that. We haven’t done that. And there has been no change in policy at all.”
