Still Too High a Number

A retired U.S. Army general who served under Presidents Carter and Reagan believes the media is giving a distorted impression about the number of military service members killed in the Iraq War.

Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry said the media hasn’t put the deaths into proper context and is misleading the public. Curry noted that U.S. military casualties for the first six years of the Bush administration are well below the national average for the 26-year period beginning in 1980.

Curry notes that a total of 1,942 military personnel were killed in all causes ranging from homicides, illnesses and hostile actions in 2002, compared to 2,392 in 1980, the last year of Carter’s administration. In fact, twice as many U.S. military personnel were killed in accidents in just one year (1980) than were killed in hostile actions in any year of the Bush administration. Even with the increase in deaths from the Iraq War beginning in 2003, U.S. troop deaths didn’t skyrocket above peacetime norms, according to the general.

Of course, 1980 was the year of the unsuccessful mission to rescue the hostages held in Iran, so perhaps it's not a fair benchmark to use. Regardless, eight servicemen were killed in the attempt, so one must wonder about the safety standards in place for the military at the time.

Curry is making the claims while promoting his recent book, From Private to General: An African American Soldier Rises Through the Ranks. During a 34-year military career that included stints as an aviator and paratrooper, he served as Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for the Carter administration and as press secretary to the Defense Secretary in the Reagan administration.

As of this week, there have been 4,072 U.S. military deaths since the war began in March 2003. During April, an average of 1.73 deaths occurred each day, government statistics indicate.

Even if what Curry alleges is technically accurate, the number of deaths is more than we can bear, to borrow Rudy Giuliani’s quote about 9/11 victims. To make matters worse, the men and women who’ve died while serving their nation did so in a completely unnecessary war, one that probably will leave Iraq only in marginally better shape than when it was launched.

Curry is that rarest of political birds, a black conservative. He’s a frequent guest on right-wing radio talk shows and made a little-noticed run for the Republican presidential nomination last year.

Here’s a timely quote from another Republican: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower uttered those words a half-century ago, and they still ring true today.

— Kevin Osborne

Comments

[Log Cabin Republican]

Kevin, what evidence is there to support your notion that Iraq will probably be marginally better than it was before?

I haven't seen anything but government propaganda.

[David E. Gallaher]

Every person trying to get medical marijuana legalized is hurting the case for ending the War on Drugs.
The same logical error affects those trying to end the war in Iraq.

Never say, "If we had'n'a spent the money there, we could'a spent it here."

We all need to back up.
War is a a flawed model for accomplishing anything good. Whether it's war on a certain group of people or war on a selected inanimate substance. There is no "just" war. Perish the thought. First, don't "war," then let's talk.

The model for accomplishing something good is the Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. Google it.

Peaceful Anarchist speaking.
(I write the above shortly after seeing an old picture of me the Little Woman happened to find today of me just after Operation Dewey Canyon over in Vietnam.)