American Deaths over the Last Three Years Put in Perspective with Iraq War.

• Auto Accidents: 120,000
• Falling Down: 45,000
• Poisoning: 27,000
• Drowning: 12,000
• War in Iraq: 2,300

I ran across these numbers while reading over the weekend and just felt that this just really put the Iraq War into perspective. Before I continue, let me just say that every death is a tragedy but that is what happens in war, people die on the battle field. Now let’s compare the numbers of Americans dieing on the battle field in Iraq to the number of Americans dieing at home.

We have had 2,300 US soldiers killed in Iraq in the three years that we have been there. The media and anti-war crowd have been using the death toll to try and gain momentum for their agenda. The story that is not being told in all of this, and it is because they do not want to tell it, is the brilliant success in this war that has reduced the battle field death toll significantly compared to past wars. Less than 800 a year for three years of ground combat is unbelievable success in military history. In fact, it is the lowest casualty rate out of any long term ground operation in the history of the world. But the media will not report it that way because they live in this “one death is one death to many” mind-set, plus it just doesn’t fit the bad news for Bush template.

Another thing about the casualty rate is that it is decreasing. So far March will be the second lowest casualty rate since the war began. In March the casualty rate has been about one a day. Compare that to over 3 a day in October, every month since November it was over 2 a day, and in February it was 2 a day. So the casualty rate has been dropping and the media and the left have taken notice of this as well. We had the daily death toll report from them when we got close to a thousand. They just couldn’t wait to report 1000 deaths, then it was 1500, then it was 2,000, and then the rate began to drop off. Soldiers were not dieing fast enough for the bad news for Bush crew anymore. They had to come up with another attack line. So now it is, Iraq is in civil war, suicide bombers are killing Iraqis at will and creating chaos in the streets, and all hope has been lost their, Bush is a failure and we just need to get out.
Okay, back to the numbers now: during the last three years of the Iraq war, we have lost 2,300 soldiers, America lost 120,000 of its citizens in automobile deaths, an average of 40,000 a year. So we've lost 120,000 citizens in car crashes the last three years versus 2,300 in a ground war in Iraq. Forty-five thousand Americans died from injuries sustained when they fell down. Twenty-seven-thousand people in these past three years died from poisons. Twenty-seven thousand Americans were poisoned to death!

Twelve thousand Americans over the last three years drowned. So water and the wheel have killed more Americans than insurgent mortar rounds and gun fire in Iraq. We lost 2,400 in the war. We've lost 12,000 by drowning. It seems to me that on the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion, we might want to take a moment to congratulate all of the generals and the battle planners for having the most effective land battle plan when it comes to preventing American casualties. This never seems to be put into perspective though.