4 Small Rivers

Four Small Rivers: a chaotic ramble of notes from my travels; from my life; from my professional world; and musings on the Meaning of Life. Related website: joeinc.tv/Personal NOTE: the notes in here represent personal opinions not those of any entity I may otherwise be affiliated with (employers, customers, etc.)

Thursday, November 11, 2004

The Terrible Math of War

A recent report noted that Iraqi casualties now were over 100,000. How many US military are casualties? We all know the raw statistic: now over 1,000 soldiers killed. The Pentagon has admitted to 7,000 wounded. HOWEVER ... there are indications that this is far from the full list. Another count adds 17,000.
This count is from a journalist who, instead of relying on the Pentagon list ...
investigated, wondered why he saw more people injured ... and then found that the records of soldiers evacuated by helicopter for medical reasons ... and there were far more.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/10/1537224

Insofar as this is true, then the net casualties, dead and wounded, from Iraq (1,000 + 7,000 + 17,000) = 25,000.

There are about 125,000 US troops in Iraq ... perhaps the rotations have meant that the total US troop count through Iraq in this war has totalled 250,000.
That, then, is a 10% casualty rate.

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