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MILITARY DEATHS FOR TWENTY SIX YEARS/SNEAKY US MEDIA

These are some rather eye-opening facts: Since the start of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan , the sacrifice has been enormous. In the time period from the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 through now, we have lost over 3000 military personnel to enemy action and accidents. As tragic as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the following statistics:

The annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the armed forces from 1980 through 2006:

1980 ........ 2,392
1981 .........2,380
1984 ........ 1,999
1988 ........ 1,819
1989 ........ 1,636
1990 .........1,508
1991 .........1,787
1992 .........1,293
--------- ------
1993 ....... 1,213
1994 ........1,075
1995 ........2,465
1996 .......2,318 8 Clinton years @13,417 deaths
1997 ......... 817
1998 ........2,252
1999 ........1,984
--------- -
2000 ........ 1,983
2001 ......... 890
2002 ........ 1,007 7 BUSH years @ 9,016 deaths
2003 ........ 1,410
2004 .........1,887
2005 ........ 919
2006........ .. 920
--------- --------- ---

If you are confused when you look at these figures...so was I (Not me, AlphaF - the guy who wrote this crap!).

Do these figures mean that the loss from the two latest conflicts in the Middle East are LESS than the loss of military personnel during Mr. Clinton 's presidency; when America wasn't even involved in a war? And, I was even more confused; when I read that in 1980, during the reign of President (Nobel Peace Prize) Jimmy Carter, there were 2,392 US military fatalities!

These figures indicate that many of our Media & Politicians will pick and choose. They present only those 'facts' which support their agenda-driven reporting. Why do so many of them march in lock-step to twist the truth. Where do so many of them get their marching-orders for their agenda?

Our Mainstream Print and TV media, and many Politicians like to slant; that these brave men and women, who are losing their lives in Iraq , are mostly minorities! Wrong AGAIN--- just one more media lie! The latest census, of Americans, shows the following distribution of American citizens, by Race (Now, this really racist- so sorry, only few Hispanics or blacks died):

European descent (White) .... 69.12%
Hispanic ............ ........12.5%
Black....... ......... .......12.3%
Asian ............ ......... ..3.7%
Native American ... ...........1.0%
Other ............ ......... ..2.6%

Now... here are the fatalities by Race; over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom:

European descent (white) .... 74.31%
Hispanic ............ ........10.74%
Black ............ ......... ..9.67%
Asian ............ ......... ..1.81%
Native American ............ ..1.09%
Other ............ ......... ....33%

These statistics are published by Congressional Research Service, and they may be confirmed by anyone at:
http://www.fas. org/sgp/crs/ natsec/RL32492. pdf (Please look at this report site if you have the chance.)

Now ask yourself these two questions:

1. 'Why does the mainstream Print and TV Media never provide statistics like these?'


2. 'Why does the mainstream media hate the web as much as they do?'

You do the Math! These figures don't lie...

Alpha reading Zaman? :-S

I heard there was some interesting methods of calculating these statistics. If someone dies from a noncombat incident, it's not included. For instance if they are injured and die later, it doesn't count.

Also, due to medical advances, many who would have died due to their injuries,do not now die. They suffer debilitating injuries instead.

Things like PTSD, suicides are not covered.

Well, it's like I said in another thread, the media can be manipulative.

This may not be important or pertinent but, if ethnicity is broken down for fatalities, why not provide a breakdown of ethnicity for all enlisted personnel? Why not workout the percentage of deaths in each ethnic background? Didn't they all die serving THEIR country, the same country?

I would also be interested in the non fatal casualties and also the support given to them post service and to the families of the deceased.

There has been some controversy over the level of support given to service personnel and/or their families. One can get more compensation for being knocked over by an empty crisp packet in the UK (slight exaggeration . . emphasis on slight).

WHAT THEY SHOULD DISCLOSE IS THE NUMBER OF MEN usa KILLED IN THIS GOD GIVEN PEACE KEEPING MISSION

It is called "statistical massage" ! You can do anything you like with statistics.

US death toll in Iraq hits 4,000

US troops continue to face attacks from Sunni and Shia fighters as the war enters its sixth year

The death toll of US military in Iraq has passed 4,000 after the US Central Command announced that four more troops had died in an attack.

The soldiers were killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb during a patrol in southern Baghdad, the military said on Monday.

At least 50 Iraqis, most of them civilians, also died on Sunday in violence including bomb blasts and shootings.

In the most deadly attack, 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into a security checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul.

Conflict rages

More than 29,000 American soldiers have been wounded after years of conflict in Iraq, according to the icasualties.org website, which also carried the 4,000-strong US death toll.

The death toll is still considerably smaller than the number of Iraqis who have died in the conflict.

After five years, was the Iraq war worth it?

"It has been left to journalists and academics to try and estimate the number that have died. Estimates vary from 89,000 on the lowest side to the highest figure that I have heard - which is one million," James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, said.

"When you speak to an Iraqi who has stayed here in this country throughout the last five years, everyone knows someone who has died, and most families have lost a family member."

At least 97 per cent of the US military deaths came after George Bush, the US president, announced the end of "major combat" in Iraq on May 1, 2003.
Facing violence

Since the US military toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq's president, it has faced a violent anti-occupation campaign and witnessed violence between the country's sectarian communities.

"No casualty is more or less significant than another; each soldier, marine, airman and sailor is equally precious and their loss equally tragic," Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, US military spokesman in Baghdad, said of the losses.

"Being in the military means we are willingly in harm's way to protect others in order to bring hope and a sustainable security to the Iraqi people."

The milestone death toll comes day after Bush defended his decision to invade Iraq, saying the US would remain in Iraq and promising American soldiers that they would emerge victorious.

'Far from over'

Hoda Abdel Hamid, Al Jazeera's Iraq correspondent, said the high death toll showed that the conflict had not been fully contained by the US.

In video

The impact of the US death toll on military families


"The Bush administration keeps saying that things are getting better and better. Reaching such a milestone is a reminder that the war is far from over in Iraq," she said.

"We are at a transition period. Despite the fact that the surge is working, despite the fact that the violence has dropped ... things could get much worse underground."

Abdel Hamid said that the "surge" could not work effectively unless it was accompanied by national reconciliation of Iraq's sectarian communities.

Cause of deaths

More than 80 per cent of soldiers killed have died in attacks by al-Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni and Shia fighters, icasualties.org said.

The remainder died in non-combat related incidents.

Around 40 per cent of those killed were struck by roadside bombs, according to the website, making these weapons the main cause of fatalities.


For the US army, 2007 was the deadliest year,
when it lost 901 soldiers in Iraq [AFP]

Small-arms fire was the second biggest killer, the website said, with helicopter crashes, ambushes, rocket attacks and suicide bombings also the cause of many deaths.

The deadliest year for the military in Iraq was 2007 when it lost 901 troops, the icasualties.org website figures said.

This figure compares with 486 deaths in 2003, the first year of the conflict, 849 in 2004, 846 in 2005 and 822 in 2006. Since the start of 2008, 96 soldiers have died.

Vietnam has been the deadliest war for the US military, apart from the two world wars, with 58,000 soldiers killed between 1964 and 1973, an average of 26 a day.

On average, just over two US soldiers die each day in Iraq.

'Surge' debate

American soldiers in Iraq interviewed by news agencies said that while they were sad about the losses, the conflict was justified.

"It's sad that the number is that high. It makes you wonder if there is a different way of approaching things. Nobody likes to hear that number," said senior Airman Preston Reeves, 26, from Birmingham, Alabama.

"Every one of those people signed up voluntarily and it's a shame that that happens, but tragedies do happen in war.

"It's a shame you don't get support from your own country, when all they want you to do is leave Iraq and all these people will have died in vain."

Withdrawal calls

Against the backdrop of the rising US military death toll, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Democratic candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination, are calling for the withdrawal of troops.

Clinton has said that she may consider pulling troops out of the country after 60 days, she should win the nomination and the presidency.

But John McCain, who is set to become the Republican candidate in the presidential race, has advocated US soldiers remaining in Iraq.

McCain remains a strong supporter of Bush's controversial "surge", which saw 30,000 extra soldiers deployed in an attempt to improve security in Iraq.