longterm cost est. $2.5 trillion

At the beginning of this year, the Pentagon was putting out a figure of roughly 23,000 wounded, but the VA was quietly saying that more than 50,000 had, in fact, been wounded.

Matters did not rest there. Despite its independence from the Pentagon, the VA is run by Robert James Nicholson, a former Republican Party chairman and Bush's loyal political appointee. Following it coming to light that the VA was admitting more wounded than was the Pentagaon- on 10 January, to be precise - the number of wounded listed on the VA website dropped from 50,508 to 21,649. The Bush administration had, once again, turned reality on its head to concur with its claims.

"The whole thing is scary," one observor said. "I have never been conspiracy-minded, but watching them change the numbers on the VA website - it's extraordinary."

So far, more than 200,000 veterans from the current Iraq or Afghanistan wars have been treated at VA centers. Twenty per cent of those brought home are suffering from serious brain or spinal injuries, or the severing of more than one limb, and a further 20 per cent from amputations, blindness or deafness, severe burns, or other dire conditions.

Furthermore, every person injured on active duty is going to be a long-term cost of the war now estimated to be over $2.5 trillion.