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05/25/2004 Archived Entry: "RE: CASUALTY BLEG"

Posted by steve @ 12:17 AM EST [Link]

REALITY CHECK: The fact that 801 Americans have died in Iraq is sad -- and my heart goes to the families of every soldier who has fallen -- but as Peter Robinson pointed out over at NRO Monday evening, it's an incredibly low number.

The number of dead we suffered in Vietnam peaked in 1968 at 538 in September and then the same number again in November. (For details, click here: http://members.aol.com/forcountry/kiamonth.htm).

The number of American dead on the Normandy beaches of D-Day is unclear—the official figures combine several kinds of casualties (dead, wounded and missing) and several forces (Americans, British, and Canadians)—but a reasonable estimate, several readers suggested, would put the figure at about 1500. A still more arresting statistic: During the Second World War the United States suffered an average of 400 dead every day for a thousand days.

Obviously cold numbers do nothing to assuage the grief that each death causes, and nor should they. That said we have to put these numbers in perspective. As the National Bureau of Economic Research pointed out a couple of years ago, "Traffic accidents claim over 40,000 lives each year in the United States, roughly the same as the total number of Americans killed during the Vietnam War." That averages out to nearly 110 Americans killed every day just driving their cars. By the time the next issue of ESR pops up on Monday, almost as many Americans will have died in their cars as have died in Iraq since April of last year.

If we can take any solace in the 801 deaths it's that they are contributing to the cause of American and international security.

Replies: 2 comments

The number of American dead on the Normandy beaches of D-Day is unclear—the official figures combine several kinds of casualties (dead, wounded and missing) and several forces (Americans, British, and Canadians)—but a reasonable estimate, several readers suggested, would put the figure at about 1500.

I don't buy that one for a second.

D-Day Combatants
Country # of Soldiers on D-Day Percentage
*United States 95,000 34%
*Great Britain 60,000 21%
*Canada 20,000 7%
Germany 105,000 38%

Roughly 280,000 combatants.

1500 would be around 1/2 of 1 percent killed.

I read somewhere else that 14,000 CIVILIANS died during the two week period immediately following the invasion of Normandy.

Posted by William Webb @ 05/25/2004 12:42 PM EST

I think his D-Day numbers are very off as well. U.S. casualities that day -- AFAIK -- were on the order of 7500 that day.

That said, Robinson's larger point remains valid.

Posted by Steve Martinovich @ 05/25/2004 02:35 PM EST