Despite what you’ve heard, casualties are DOWN
The liberal blogs are in a froth over the magical number 3,000 being passed in the number of U.S. casualties in Iraq since the invasion. Is it a sad number? To be sure. That’s 3,000 of my fellow countrymen who have died far from home, in a foreign land, for a war that seems to have no end.
Despite the headlines, the losses and numbers of wounded personnel is actually DOWN from 2005 and significantly reduced from 2004. Quoting from the LA Times…
The Marine deaths reported Friday brought the number of U.S. military fatalities in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,996, icasualties.org said, with 816 of them occurring this year. Last year, 846 American service members died; in 2004, the figure was 848.
So, overall deaths are down. How about wounds?
The number of U.S. wounded is also down this year — 5,676 compared with 5,947 in 2005 and 8,001 in 2004.
Mind you, the vast majority of reported wounds are not severe, and soldiers are able to return to duty within a few days. I personally know two guys who were injured in Iraq - severe enough to receive a Purple Heart - who were back to duty in less than a week.
This isn’t to belittle those that have been injured. Many go home severely handicapped and live their lives dealing with those issues. We should all be greatful for their sacrifices - and I am.
Nevertheless, when compared to the sacrifices Americans have made in other wars, and even from crime here in the U.S. in only the last year, it’s a relatively small number.
For example, the media takes great delight in telling us how many Iraqis were killed in sectarian attacks on a given day. Fair enough. But are the total attacks on Americans by other Americans ever totalled? Yes, but rarely by the MSM. According to the FBI, in 2005, there were 16,692 murders of Americans in the United States. Since 2003, there have been a total of 49,368 murders. Seems to me, the good ol’ U.S. of A. isn’t such a safe place either.
Compare that now to the 3,000 American lives lost in Iraq, and oh by the way - about 19% (578) of those deaths were due to accidents. By way of comparison, it’s estimated that U.S. and Coalition Forces have killed more than 30,000 insurgents.
Comparing our battle losses in this war to those of previous wars brings out the disparity even more. This country has had only two other wars that have lasted this long and produced fewer casualties - the Indian Wars (which consisted primarily of scattered scirmishes) and the Spanish-American War. All others of equal or greater length produced far more battle deaths. For example…
American Revolution - 4,435
Civil War - 214,938 (combined)
World War I - 53,402 (and that was in about a year’s time)
World War II - 291,557
Korean War - 33,741
Vietnam War - 47,410
Even more telling is the number of soldiers who have died per month. Gateway Pundit has an excellent analysis that shows that the numbers who have died per month in Iraq is significantly lower than almost all previous wars. In fact, during WWII and the Civil War, we lost more soldiers EACH MONTH than we have in the entirety of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Yes, we are at war, but not like some previous wars. Let’s not get hung up on the numbers of casualties and instead focus on what needs to be done to accomplish this mission and close up shop in Iraq. Then, we won’t have any more losses to talk about.
(H/T Gateway Pundit for a couple of the links used)
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Jack, there’s no good way to discount our dead and injured (www.theonion.com/content/node/56628). It’s not a “hang up”. We measure the cost of war by lives and treasure - we always have and we always will. Rather than getting “hung up” on the cost, you write that we should focus on what needs to be done to accomplish this mission. Good idea. I look forward to the POTUS deciding what needs to be done (I think he’s gonna tell us sometime this month, right?). Until then, it’s not a bad idea to tally our dead and check our wallets. Regards and Happy New Year, Jesse