Is is safe to be a soldier?
Thanks to my buddy BIG LOU for sending me the following article. I read and went, "Na, can't be true. This has to be skewed info. I know enough about statistics to know you can colorize them to say anything you want." Then I popped the link and read the report. I am stunned. I knew the Army AKO Safety plan had paid dividends but I did not realize just how many personnel were killed in accidents during the Clinton years. Read the info below and then read the official Congressional report. I think you too will be surprised. It is actually safer to be a soldier now during a hot war than it was during the 90s.
Why has the media not complained about military casualties before the Iraq war? Here are
some rather eye-opening facts:
As tragic as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is,
consider the following statistics:
Annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the
armed forces from 1980 through 2004:
1980 .......... 2,392
1981 .......... 2,380
1982 .......... 2,318
1983 .......... 2,465
1984 .......... 1,999
1985 .......... 2,252
1986 .......... 1,984
1987 .......... 1,983
1988 .......... 1,819
1989 .......... 1,636
1990 .......... 1,508
1991 .......... 1,787
1992 .......... 1,293
1993 .......... 1,213
1994 .......... 1,075
1995 .......... 1,040
1996 ............ 974
1997 ........... 817
1998 ............ 826
1999 ............ 795
2000 ........... 774
2001 ............ 890
2002 .......... 1007
2003 ......... 1,410 ----- 534*
2004 . .........1,887 ----- 900*
2005 ............ 919*
2006 ........... 920*
* Figures are Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom
fatalities only
Does this really mean that the loss from the two current conflicts in
the Middle East are LESS than the loss of military personnel during
Mr. Clinton's presidency? Were we at war?
Now, are you confused when you look at these figures?
Especially look at 1980, during the reign of President "Nobel Peace
Prize, Jimmy Carter" himself, there were 2,392 US military fatalities.
What this clearly indicates is that our media and our liberal
politicians pick and choose, and they tend to present only those
facts that support their agenda driven reporting.
Another fact our left media and politicians like to slant is that
these brave men and women losing their lives are minorities.
Wrong again - The latest census shows the following:
European descent (white) . 69.12%
Hispanic ....................... 12.5%
African American ............ 12.3%
Asian .............................. 3.7%
Native American ............... 1.0%
Other ............................... 2.6%
Now, the fatalities over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom are:
European descent (white) .. 74.31%
Hispanic .......................... 10.74%
African American ..... ..........9.67%
Asian ................................ 1.81%
Native American ... ............. 1.09%
Other ................................. 2.33%
These statistics are published by DOD and may be viewed at:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf
Labels: Army Life
posted by flythemig29 at 9:53 AM
3 Comments:
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I'd have to say that these numbers reflect the shrinking numbers of US soldiers, right? I mean, back in 1980 we had *thousands and thousands* of troops deployed in Europe, Japan, S. Korea, Central America and more. Over the last few years the downsizing of the US military personnel and outsourcing of operations from everything including food service to waging the drug war in Central America has reduced the number of active duty soldiers.
Additionally, because of the large number of US troops deployed at that time (particularly the very young soldiers) most of those fatalities in the Carter years, Reagan years and on were "accidents". These fatalities came from a variety of sources including traffic accidents, industrial accidents and while I will not go into any detail here, more than one person falling out of a helicopter.
Last evening there was an advertisement on the local TV regarding safe driving for teenagers. It is a string of cars driving along a country rode in a hilly area and the speaker says something like " Last year over 6,000 teenagers went out for a ride and didn't come back." A statistic that we rarely get a look at unless we go looking for it or an ad is run like this one was. Now isn't that something that should be getting at least a tenth of the attention as the number of deaths in the effort by those teenagers who did return from that ride and grew up and faced up to a responsibility that we should all honor them for?
Still have not seen the apology from Mirtha!!!
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