I'm sick of all the whiners crying about our casualties. They act like we're getting slaughtered, and the American public won't be able to take it. During WW2, American B-17 bomber crews stationed in England in 1942, (the Eighth Air Force,) lost 7 percent of its bombers on raids. Such high attrition rates meant the average bomber crew could expect to survive only 14 or 15 missions. Unfortunately, the standard tour of duty at that time was 25 missions!
Yet, today, our troops are actually safer in Iraq than citizens in the United States!
Impossible you say?
Here are our CURRENT Casualties:
FRAG: March 23 - Army officer killed by Muslim American soldier with hand grenade.
BATTLE: March 24 - Army maintenance crew of 12 - 7 dead, (including "executions,") 5 missing presumed captured.
March 20 - U.S. marine killed in Iraq, first killed in combat.
March 21 - Second U.S marine killed in Iraq.
ACCIDENTS: March 21 - Eight British soldiers from 3 Commando brigade and four U.S. marines are killed when a U.S. Marine CH-46E helicopter crashes in Kuwait, six km (10 miles) south of the Iraq border.
March 22 - Two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters collide in the northern Gulf. All seven crew members, including one American, were killed.
Current U.S. casualty count: 15 in four days +.
Here's an interesting tidbit: There have been 6 deaths of news reporters of camera crew members in the war! When you consider there are only a few thousand of them, those media types don't lead healthy lifestyles like our troops!
Just for reference, in the 1991 Gulf war we had 148 battle deaths, 145 nonbattle deaths, 467 wounded in action. We had more than 500,000 troops in theater for about 180 days. 129 of those fatalities were in one Scud missile strike on a barracks in Saudi Arabia. Without that one incident, our troops would have had a lower mortality rate than civilians at home.
Last December the NTSB said in a report on deaths in alchohol related traffic accidents that in 2001 17,448 were killed in alchohol related accidents, accounting for 41 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths. Therefore, the total traffic related deaths were 42,556 (17,448 divided by 0.41), which means on average over 116 (42,556 divided by 365 = 116.6) people die violent, bloody deaths on the roads each day. Per the census bureau, one person dies in the US every 11 seconds, which means 7,855 people die each day of all causes, more than a few of them in violent, bloody, murders.
Per the CDC, the annual death rate per 100,000 for 20-35 year olds would be just about 100, so the expected mortality for the 400,000 soldiers in Iraq would be a little more than one per day (400,000 /100,000 x 100 = 400 /365 = 1.1). If the average troop strength in Kuwait and Iraq was 200,000 (zero grading up ratably to 400,000 over the past three months), we would expect about 50 deaths (0.55 deaths per day x 90 days). This is conservative because the troop strength built very rapidly, not ratably. The correct number would be somewhat higher than 50; on the order of maybe 70.
The bottome line is that in the last 90 days of combat training, preparation, and actual combat, our troops have a lower mortality rate to this point than you or I sitting in front of our computers posting on Free Republic.
If you just watched CNN and listened to Tom Dashle, you'd think we were still flying B-17s against the Luftwaffe.
By the way, I'd like to thank FReeper Ironclad for the statistical data on U.S. mortality rates.
While we are advancing in a blitzkrieg offensive at the pace of 100 miles per day. That is astounding and unprecedented in the entire history of warfare.