Statistics on a Pentagon Web site have been reorganized in a way that lowers the published totals of American nonfatal casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Monday, the bottom line of the Defense Department's Web page on casualties in Iraq listed a total of 47,657 ``nonmortal casualties.'' By Tuesday, the same page no longer showed a total for nonmortal casualties. The bottom line is now ``total - medical air transported,'' and the figure is 31,493.
The new total excludes 16,164 soldiers who were wounded but did not require medical air transport.
Paul Sullivan, director of research and analysis of Veterans for America, said the changes actually meant that the Pentagon was trying to conceal the rising toll of injuries and illness.
Sullivan, formerly a project manager at the VA, also said the department was not prepared to provide the health care that returning veterans would need for mental and physical disabilities.
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