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Posted on 04/12/2003 5:32:41 AM PDT by GailA
Study: 20 percent of war deaths are blacks
By THOMAS HARGROVE April 11, 2003
Nearly a fifth of the fatalities among U.S. troops in the current war in Iraq are black, which will be the highest cost African Americans have paid in any of America's wars if the trend continues.
There are also indications that Hispanics may be over-represented among the war dead, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study.
This isn't the result of minorities being assigned to dangerous duty in front-line units. Elite combat troops like Special Forces units and the Green Berets are disproportionately white, military experts said. The U.S. Army's dash to Baghdad forced supply convoys occasionally to traverse enemy-held territory in southern and central Iraq, leaving minority troops assigned to logistical units vulnerable.
"We opened ourselves up to this by driving forward, leaving long logistical supply lines that must travel territory that we do not militarily control," said David Segal, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Research on Military Organization. "But our combat doctrine is one of deep intrusion after all, to go after the command-and-control centers of our enemies."
The study was based on an analysis of the 105 fatalities identified by the Defense Department as deaths related to the war as of April 10. Scripps Howard was able to determine the race of 98 of these, of whom 19 were African American.
"I was not aware of this and am surprised by it," said Julian Bond, national chairman of the NAACP. "I knew that black soldiers were concentrated in the non-combat positions of the military, which makes this all the more surprising. But clearly, these support troops were subjected to battle conditions unexpectedly."
The study found the race of 19.4 percent of all fatalities in which race was able to be determined was black. African Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population and 20 percent of all military personnel.
"African Americans are, relatively speaking, over-represented in the military. But the real point of the spear, groups like Special Ops, are almost lily white," Segal said. "It is just that in the kind of war we are fighting, there is no insulation for people in the rear areas from death or injury."
Three of the dead black soldiers - Spec. Jamaal Addison of Roswell, Ga., Pfc. Howard Johnson of Mobile, Ala., and Pfc. Brandon Sloan of Bedford, Ohio - were killed March 23 when a convoy of supply troops from the Army's 507th Maintenance Co. were ambushed Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Those three and nine others were killed either by enemy gunfire during convoy duty or by accidents while driving military vehicles. The remaining seven are reported to have died in what appear to be non-convoy related combat encounters.
The study also found that 14 of the dead troops (or 14.3 percent) have Hispanic surnames and may consider themselves to be Hispanic. Fewer than 8 percent of all military personnel are Hispanic, according to the Defense Department. However, military experts warn that this is a difficult statistic to prove unofficially since ethnicity is self-defined.
For example, Mexican-born Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar of Escondido, Calif., who died March 30 when the First Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion encountered enemy fire, is officially Hispanic only if he identified himself on military records as Hispanic.
It seems likely, however, that fatalities among black and Latino troops will hit new highs in the second Iraqi war since both groups experienced steadily increasing percentages of combat-related deaths in recent wars.
Very few blacks and Hispanics were assigned to front-line combat units during World War II. According to a study released by the Pentagon's Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, blacks accounted for 8.4 percent of all military deaths during the Korean War.
"Korea was the war during which we racially integrated the military and so African American casualties started to increase," Segal said. "They actually approached parity (with population percent) during the Vietnam War."
The Pentagon estimates that 12.4 percent of the combat deaths in Vietnam were among blacks, almost exactly the percentage of blacks in the American population. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War blacks accounted for 17.3 percent of fatalities.
Hispanic casualties, although difficult to calculate exactly, also appear to be rising. Soldiers who identified themselves either as Hispanic or partially Hispanic represented 2.4 percent of deaths in Korea, 0.6 percent in Vietnam and 4.1 percent during the first Persian Gulf War.
(e-mail hargrovet(at)shns.com)
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Is Segal implying some sort of nefarious discrimination schemes here, or what?
I'd like to know just why any of this matters to The Commercial Appeal?
Forty years ago, the de-segregation warriors such as MLK and Jesse Jackson at least in his own mind) were talking about their desire for a colorblind society. How can there be a colorblind society when this sort of nonsense is continually made much of?
Colorblindness doesn't pay.
Now the race flap will be brought out.
If we are gonna count victim groups, let's count 'em all.
Hmmmmm. We can 'define' our own ethnicity? I will have to keep that in mind when my [white] daughter applies for college.
Why does the article switch from discussing fatalities to discussing casualties? Or does "casualties" mean "fatalities"?
And wouldn't including the seriously injured result in a better indicator of who is fighting in "dangerous" situations? In a given dangerous situation some soldiers die and some (though seriously injured) live.
Some soldiers in the same dangerous situation are uninjured or lightly injured, too.
How about an international law barring the killing of enemy forces unless it is done according to a strict racial quota...
We need to spread the word because a majority of blacks ( something like 70%) are against the war. Once we point out that Iraq's are targeting blacks more than whites maybe we can change their mind.
Oh boy - thanks for the preview of the content for the Ski and Skinner radio show this weekend. Inquiring minds would like to know what 'color' of the other 80% of the deaths were.
There is going to be such an uproar from the left about every aspect of the war after it is over that I am going to shut the radio off for my own sanity. Wait till Maxine Waters sees this...
A_R
Hmmmmmm... you may have something here. Smart bombs that could detect the race/sex of the person on the ground. The UN should start drafting new regulations now.
And the NBA, NFL, MLB, and the Centcom briefing team. Get a clue.
80% of reporters/editors are idiots.
He is scheming to extract more of American resources to prop up the failed intercity black neighborhoods. Guilt is assuaged with money. He wants money.A few dead black people are worth mega bucks. The man is reprehensable.
20% of America's Heroes are black!
The folks angry about her rescue should aim their anger at the Iraqi lawyer who told the coalition forces where she was being held (while she was being tortured).
- 64% of journalists came from only 3 states (NY, NJ, Penn)
- 2/3 of journalists came from families that were in the top 10% of the financial bracket (translation: rich kids)
- over 84% of journalists admitted to seldom or never attending church
The liberals like to use the term "lily white". I don't see how you can call a Special Ops bad boy "lily" white. LOL I might call Burnadette Peters "lily white", but that's about it.
Minority troops assigned to logistical units? I thought soldiers could pick what type of job they had. This makes it seem like they're slaves, just going where The Man tells them to.
Let's have a tote board please, so we can keep up to the minute records of this important data. (For God's sake they were all AMERICANS! Shaddup about race already).
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