10 US soldiers wounded each day

Even the fall in attacks does not obscure the bad news for Ken Dilanian of Knight Ridder. He notes that hostile fire had wounded 2,076 US soldiers as of Nov. 24, including 1,200 hurt after May 1. He says, "Although that number is small compared, say, with Vietnam, it's growing at roughly 10 a day, meaning thousands more could be injured before the U.S. occupation of Iraq ends. He notes that the Pentagon does not regularly announce woundings and that the wounded get little airtime on US television. He tells the story of Gunn, who was driving a Humvee when it hit a roadside bomb: ' "Everything was just smoky. I looked at myself - I was still smoking. There was blood all over the place, and I just thought, you know, just, I thought I was going to die." One friend in the Humvee was already dead from the blast of the jerry-built 90 mm mortar round, and one would die later. Those two joined the ranks of the 421 U.S. soldiers who've been killed in action since the Iraq war started. '