Reply #12: This talking point raises it's ugly head again

[Mortos]

First of all the numbers from 1980 until 2004 can be found here:

http://siadapp.dior.whs.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/Death_Rates.pdf

There are lies, damn lies and statistics. Never ones for in depth research, the right wingers pull random numbers out of a list and then compare them to other random numbers creating a false parellel for those who are too lazy to investigate.

The numbers of troops who died in the 1980's, and there were more who died in training accidents have to be compared to the size of the force which was much larger in order to arrive at a percentage of military members who died comparable to the force as a whole.

The person who is quoting those numbers is just cherry picking the number of troops that died in combat, out of a force of 150,000, leaving out accidental deaths, homicides, illness, etc and comparing it to the total deaths in the military from all causes during the specific years mentioned.

It is a total lie to say less troops are being killed now than under peacetime under Bill Clinton.

If you include all fatality causes during the period of the Iraq war, the number of troops killed would double.

It is a more complex formula than most are willing to examine but the overriding truth is that this talking point is a lie and it diminishes the sacrifice of our soldiers who are being killed in a time of war.

One more point, the number fails to even mention the 20,000 or so military members who have been injured in this war. A number that in the past would have been much lower because many of the injured would have died thus increasing that total.

I could go on for a long time about this comparing percentages and survivability rates to past conflicts but I won't.

The truth is soldiers are dying everyday in a war that Bush pushed us into.