For more than five years now, I have written often about a subject that once got no coverage, and still gets far too little: so-called "noncombat" deaths among U.S. troops in Iraq. Included are those who die from illness, accidents and suicides. One case I have followed lately involves the heroic work of Cheryl Harris, whose son Sgt. Ryan Maseth was electrocuted and died in Iraq back in January. Cheryl's efforts (I helped with some research early on) have, amazingly, sparked congressional, Pentagon and journalistic probes. Now, on the front page of The New York Times , James Risen has broken the electrical risk story wide open, citing the death of Ryan Maseth as a turning point, in declaring that the threat to soldiers at "United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents." Risen continues: "During just one six-month period -- August 2006 through January 2007 -- at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged American military facilities in Iraq, including the military's largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show. Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007. "And while the Pentagon has previously reported that 13 Americans ...
Anytime
