Fatalities in WoT/ lower than under Clinton "peace" time

There have been remarkably low fatalities in the Iraqi Freedom campaign- considering it is war. In fact, just this month the losses in Iraq and Afghanistan combined passed the halfway mark of military fatalities during the Clinton Years.

The US has lost 3434 soldiers and marines in Iraq and 390 soldiers and marines in Afghanistan over the past 5 years. This total of 3824 has passed half of the number of soldiers lost during the Clinton years during peacetime.

** The US has been fighting the War on Terror for over 5 years and has lost just over half the soldiers in battle as the Clinton Administration was losing during peacetime in 8 years.

It puts things into perspective. Don't expect this grim milestone to be reported by the mainstream media any time too soon.

I assume that the Civil War comes in highest because we are counting both sides.

Yeah, and there were more Republican Northerners killed than democrat party slavery defending Southerners.

The link at #16 has the best data -- total deaths in the miltary for every year 1981-2004 (Table 4). The truth seems to be that total deaths run just about .1% of active duty troops, just a little over or under. So, in the Reagan years, deaths ran 1800-2300 per year out of about 2.1 million.

As the military declined, post the end of the USSR, the deaths 1996-2001 were 800-1000 out of about 1.4-1.5 million (probably less intense training and patrolling post-USSR helped). Then 2003 jumped to 1410 and 2004 to 1887, which is just about in line with Iraq deaths of 486 in 2003 and 849 in 2004 being put on top of the baseline peacetime deaths.

So, it isn't true that total military deaths are lower now, even with the Iraq war, than they were under Clinton. It IS true that they are lower than under Carter (at least 1980) and early Reagan, with a larger military. And the basic story that no one got all weepy about the "huge waste of life" in those days when the proportionate figure for total military deaths (as a percentage of troops) was about the same as in the current Iraq war period.

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