[ChiefJayStrongbow]

Worth sharing.

[Unassuaged]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/deaths.asp

===FALSE

[wizr]

Thanks. Passed along.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Worth sharing."

Indeed. But the DU types will add all the Iraqis killed to the total (after all, they make no distinction between American lives lost, and enemy lives lost).

[Rockingham]

The principal reasons for peacetime military deaths are training accidents, illness, and that the military, like most groups with a lot of energetic young men, has a relatively high death rate from civilian risks like car accidents, extreme sports, crime, and so on. Of course, when a President sends me into harm’s way, he becomes morally responsible for any resulting deaths, so that is what the public focuses on.

[Egon]

Bump for the link to the source documents. Should make for some interesting reading, even though the article is inaccurate.

[wideawake]

The above numbers are not accurate.

However, if you look at the Congressional CRS Report of this past May, there is an interesting staistical breakdown.

If you strip out accidental deaths and suicides - the two leading causes of military death besides hostile engagement with the enemy - you get 2603 military deaths due to hostile engagement with the enemy in the first six years of the George W. Bush administration - or a wartime average of 1.2 combat deaths per day.

In the War Of Independence combat casualties per day were approximately 1.4 per day. War Of 1812, 1.5. Mexico, 1.6. Civil War Union forces, 77 per day. Spanish-American War, 3.2. WWI, 73. WWII, 200. Korea, 23. Vietnam, 13.

The War on Terror has the lowest daily fatality rates of any war in US history - and unlike most wars the US has fought, the war is on every day. There are no winter breaks.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,107 deaths

George W years (2001-2007): 7,932 deaths

Ah yes. This is the evidence that I was looking for. This proves that George W was (and is) a much more considerate and caring president for the US military personnel than that evil Bill Clinton. /s

[joma89]

This whole argument about military deaths really burns me. I would like to post the Oath of Office that I took. I note that it mentions “faithfully discharging the duties of the office I am about to enter”. I think Gen Patton summed it up best:

“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” — Gen Patton

http://www.military-quotes.com/Patton.htm

---

“I, (Full Name) having been appointed a (Rank) in the United States Air Force, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter, SO HELP ME GOD.”

---

We volunteer for the vocation of arms and I have utmost respect for those who give their lives in discharging their duties.

Sincerely,

JoMa

[Mr. Lucky]

You really ought to ask the Moderator to take this down. It’s not true and spreading an unbased, untrue allegation demeans the sacrifice of those brave Americans who have given their fullest scarifice in the War on Terror.