Your numbers while quite interesting are meaningless statistics without knowing the Denominator for each of the posted numbers.
In other words do we know the total number of people in the military in 1986 and the total number of people in the military in 2006?
With knowing both the Numerator and Denominator we would know exactly what percentage of military personal died each year.
Deaths are denoted as integers. They are not in percentages. So numerator and denominator do not apply.
The percentages, as used here to denote ethnicity, do not require knowledge of total combatants.
These data are anything but meaningless.
“Your numbers while quite interesting are meaningless statistics without knowing the Denominator for each of the posted numbers.”
It is only meaningful if you are selling insurance.
The fact is: Service men in harms way are doing a better job and are not having to pay the ultimate price as often. This is all good news.
They are not meaningless at all. The media reports raw numbers, not % killed relative to overall numbers. This reporting merely keeps it apples to apples. To use a different format would only confuse the issue
Your point would, of course, be valid, if we were having a discussion on the safety of the military or something similar. But we aren't. The left in this country is using dead soldiers as a prop to bash Bush and the war. We are supposed to believe that they somehow value the lives of each and every member of the military, yet these numbers prove otherwise. Men and women have been dying in similar numbers for decades, yet it never stopped the Democrats from pushing for defense cuts.
No, they've set the standard for using these numbers, this article only throws them back in their faces.
In any event, given the incredibly low numbers of casualties suffered in actions to liberate and pacify two entire countries in the space of six years, I really don't think the left would want to start looking at "Denominators".
Did you try looking in the report?
1986 2,359,855
2006 1,664,014