US Casualties In Perspective

The loss of a every American serviceman is a tragedy for that person's family, friends and the nation. But it is time we put the loss of life of the various armed services in some perspective. During the height of the cold war 1980-1983 the US military services suffered more than 2300 deaths per year! That is to say we were loosing soldiers at a rate 3 times faster at "peace time" than we are today fighting a 2 front war.


The horizontal pink line denotes the 1540 average number of deaths over the 25 year period. The safest year for US service personnel turns out to be 2000 with only 758 deaths. That was the year the terrorist bombed the USS Cole and Mohammed Atta plotted the 9-11 attacks. Safety was only an illusion.

It is a tribute to the American armed services that we have liberated 2 nations and 50 million people from murderous despots while loosing fewer lives in 3 years than we did in a single day when this war was brought to our shores.