"Secrecy undermines the ecosystem of transparency that is vital for democracy's survival. When official secrecy dominates a political system, structural corruption thrives."
-- Steve Clemons [discussing Rep. Waxman's report on how the Bush Administration increased secrecy in several key ways]
Our form of republican democracy honors government by the people not only by the election of representatives to serve our interests, but by various techniques to protect our welfare. George Soros spoke of "an open society, which is based on the recognition that nobody has -- is in possession of the truth, and therefore you need a critical process."
Congress has a special role in this "critical process" as shown by various Republican senators criticizing on Sunday talk shows how our policy in Iraq is being carried forth (BTC News is an excellent source on the depressing ongoing problems of our foreign policy). This might be too little, too late -- the true test was before the war began. I wondered how much will it cost, will the aftermath of the "mission accomplished" defeat of Saddam himself make our "success" debatable, and was the war really necessary for some of the reasons given (WMDs, fighting terrorism, etc.)?
Clemons also wonders if Congress has provided enough oversight on the true cost of the war: "With such little oversight from Congress and most of the media, the Pentagon is getting away with making affairs in Iraq look far less horrible than they are." His immediate concern here is a true accounting of American "casualties," including those who were medically evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan.
[I'd add this does not factor in the costs and pressures to the families of personnel, including the loss of pay and benefits inflicted on those in the National Guard. Or the loss of possible homeland defenders or forces that might be better used than to fight misguided, perhaps illegal, wars.]
A recent UPI article noted that this latter group (nearly 17,000 by their reckoning) were not considered "casualties," which might be right as a labeling matter, but not so much as a "able personnel" issue. We also should add those who were not evacuated, but needed some sort of medical attention, sometimes making them unfit for duty for some amount of time. Finally, true cost should include medical treatment received by returning veterans, listed as over thirty two thousand. This includes over five thousand with mental problems, eight hundred of whom became psychotic. This last category is particularly striking:
A military study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July showed that 16 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq might suffer major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Around 11 percent of soldiers returning from Afghanistan may have the same problems, according to that study.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi civilian death toll is currently listed by one leading source as around thirteen thousand. This is in addition to the 1,019 dead and 7,245 wounded American forces.
Official Pentagon "casualty" numbers, that is.