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2006-03-21 Iraq
US casualties down in Iraq
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Posted by Dan Darling 2006-03-21 00:47|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286 per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly two to one.

That's right: all through the years when hardly anyone was paying attention, soldiers, sailors and Marines were dying in accidents, training and otherwise, at nearly twice the rate of combat deaths in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 to the present. Somehow, though, when there was no political hay to be made, I don't recall any great outcry, or gleeful reporting, or erecting of crosses in the President's home town.

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011443.php#011443
Posted by Javirt Whaiter9406 2006-03-21 08:27||   2006-03-21 08:27|| Front Page Top

#2 outstanding piece of info there Javirt - really puts it into perspective. What really worries me is if, no rephrase that when the big one starts with Iran and we face potentially losing thousands in a few months or even hate to say it a day if chem weapons are involved, how are we going to cope with a media which will inevitably cry 'defeat' even if we struck back ten times as hard and had the initiative and control of the Iranian battle space the media would paint it as utter defeat and with that power behind them i fear certainly in the UK the anti war nuts would put up such a barrage of lies and distorted facts that public opinion really would drop to disaterous levels. sad but i think it could happen
Posted by ShepUK 2006-03-21 08:47||   2006-03-21 08:47|| Front Page Top

#3 Shep, if the people have been properly prepared, the MSM will be ignored. It will take something like that for the LLL to lose their control of the MSM and their confidence in themselves. The people are a lot more savvy than the MSM leads us to believe.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-03-21 09:29||   2006-03-21 09:29|| Front Page Top

#4 I don't mean to downplay Sheps numbers, but that's the fixed cost of having an armed force. The recent unhappy 2,300 is the variable cost.
Posted by 6 2006-03-21 10:38||   2006-03-21 10:38|| Front Page Top

#5 There's no one in the military that's "unaware" of the cost. AFN would make a point of bringing the deaths to our attention when someone in the military was killed in training. Non-military accidents were another thing, and the smaller number of deaths by "natural causes" was almost ignored. Units, though, kept these people alive and in the memories of those assigned to them. The 1st TAC lost an aircraft (RF-4C) and both crewmembers in 1987 during an air show. Two friends of mine suffered minor injuries aiding others during the Ramstein air sho plane crash in 1988. Just sitting here thinking, I can recall at least 11 deaths from military duty and another 24 or 25 to accidents in units I was assigned to. That doesn't include the nine that died in a C-46 plane crash in Panama in 1967 - a plane I was supposed to be on until the last minute. War is a serious business. Training for it has to be as realistic as possible. That's sometimes fatal for the trainees, either from equipment failure, or a momentary distraction, or your or someone else's mistake. Half the deaths in Iraq have been from accidents, not bullets.
Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot  2006-03-21 17:37|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]  2006-03-21 17:37|| Front Page Top

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