WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 151 -- Peacetime Military Casualties.

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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 151 -- Peacetime Military Casualties.

War and Peace-

From 1983 to 1996, more than 18,000 soldiers died. That averages to more than 1,300 a year, far more than have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan each year.

Read Sgt. Joe Roche's entire op-ed in The Washington Times.

And more tidbits, including the fact that the military represents roughly 1% of the American workforce, hardly evidence of some sort of fascist, jingoistic military-industrial complex overrunning our culture:

At present, there are 1.4 million active-duty military personnel in all branches, combined. That's down from 2.2 million in 1986, a one-third reduction. We had 3.5 million in 1968 during the Vietnam War, 3.6 million in 1952 during the Korean War and more than 12 million in 1945 during World War II.

Interestingly, it is typically those on the left more than the right calling for a universal military draft today.

I wonder why?

[That was a rhetorical question.]

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Previous Trivia Tidbit: Unemployment Gap.

Posted by Will Franklin · 27 August 2005 10:40 AM

Comments

When the war in Iraq was about to begin, the chicken littles warned of 5-10,000 troops dead to take Baghdad.

Are the minimal casualties there a reason for the press to celebrate now? No, of course not, because their real concern all along was never the troops, but regaining power for the democrats.

Posted by: Am I A Pundit Now? at August 27, 2005 01:13 PM

You are so right! ...

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at August 27, 2005 10:41 PM

Much as I support the liberation of Iraq, that's a non-sequitor. Like saying 58,000 people died in car accidents in 1 1/2 years -- as many as died in Vietnam.

Posted by: Don Surber at August 28, 2005 09:46 AM