First let me clarify something for the obtuse and for liberals who will twist anything to suit their own twisted purposes. I served for 10 years in the United States Armed Forces, and say with great conviction that the loss of even one service member is tragic.
However, the job of American warriors is to go into harm's way and risk danger in pursuit of the nation's military objectives. Deaths, while unfortunate, come with the territory in the military. Military folks know this going in.
Having said that, I find all the crocodile tears by liberals over the deaths of U.S. servicemen pretty disgusting. It's transparent to most of us that there is little sorrow over the loss of these heroes, but their deaths make a great sympathy vehicle for their anti-war blame-America-first aims.
You may have heard some of the comparisons between current military casualties versus historic campaigns (we lost over 1,400 on D Day in WWII alone). But Erick at Redstate points out some information that adds to a reasonable perspective:
Did you know that more members of the military were killed in Jimmy Carter's last year in the White House than in any of the years we've been fighting in Iraq? Think about that. In the peaceful year of 1980, 2,392 servicemen died while on duty defending our country. In 2003, the start of the Iraq War, only 1,228 servicemen and women died. In 2004, the number was 1,874, it went up to 1,942 in 2005, and it dropped to 1,858 in 2006.
As Erick points out, peace can be dangerous...in more ways than one.
2 comments:
Hard to think there is not just a little intentional deception in this apple and oranges comparison.
From the pdf "information" you linked.
More active duty service personnel during last year of Carter Administration? Cause of death is the only interesting relevant comparison. Apparently zero or nearly zero from hostile action in the Carter Administration, But 334 in 2003, 739 in 2004, 739 in 2005, 753 in 2006.
That looks more like about 2500 combat losses for Bush administration and zero for last year of Carter information.
That seems worthy of at least a footnote in your post.
You completely missed the point, Douglas. The losses, combat or otherwise, aren't in dispute.
The point was that for all the Leftist crocodile tears over our combat deaths in Iraq, there were more peacetime deaths in the military during Carter's last year than there have been in any of the years we've been in Iraq.
It should put things in perspective...that is, if you can get the point.
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