Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Truth about the military losses, you'll be surprised

Did you know?


Whatever your politics, however you lean and however you feel about the current administration, this report is interesting. As tragic as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the below statistics:


The annual fatalities, by any cause, of military members while actively serving in the armed forces from 1980 through 2007:


1980 2,392 (Carter)
1981 2,380 (Reagan)
1984 1,999 (Reagan)
1988 1,819 (Reagan)
1989 1,636 (George H W)
1990 1,508 (George H W)
1991 1,787 (George H W)
1992 1,293 (George H W)
1993 1,213 (Clinton)
1994 1,075 (Clinton)
1995 2,465 (Clinton)
1996 2,318 (Clinton)
1997 817 (Clinton)
1998 2,252 (Clinton)
1999 1,984 (Clinton)
2000 1,983 (Clinton)
2001 890 (George W)
2002 1,007 (George W)
2003 1,410 (George W)
2004 1,887 (George W)
2005 919 (George W)
2006 920 (George W)
2007 899 (George W)

Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,107 deaths
George W years (2001-2007): 7,932 deaths


Are you surprised when you look at these figures? They indicate the loss from the two latest Middle East conflicts are less than the loss of military personnel during Clinton's presidency when America wasn't even involved in a war--unless you include Bosnia and Mogadishu, Somalia. (Remember Blackhawk Down?) Even more surprising is that in 1980, during Carter presidency, there were 2,392 US military fatalities!

These figures appear to indicate many members of our media and politicians pick and choose the information on which they report--that they present only those "facts" that support their agenda. (Oh, Gosh, Do you think?) Consider the latest census of Americans. It shows the following distribution of American citizens by race:


European descent 69.12 percent
Hispanic 12.50 percent
Black 12.30 percent
Asian 3.70 percent
Native American 1.00 percent
Other 2.60 percent


Many members of the media lead us to believe the military death ratio is off balanced compared to the distribution by race in America. Here are the fatalities by race over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom:


European descent 74.31 percent
Hispanic 10.74 percent
Black 9.67 percent
Asian 1.81 percent
Native American 1.09 percent
Other 0.33 percent


Surprised again? Hopefully, during the time between now and November, intelligent Americans can decipher-- (Too Late)


the facts from the spin.
the spinners from the leaders.
those who seek even more power from those that seek justice.
the dividers from the uniters.


These statistics are published by the Congressional Research Service and may be confirmed at: www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf --