Powerline -putting things in perspective

"I would add a few more facts. I think that Americans' weariness with Iraq is driven primarily by near-daily news reports of American soldiers and Marines being killed and wounded there. Of course, we mourn every death of an American serviceman or woman. But those losses need to be put in some kind of context; otherwise, since fighting any war inevitably involves casualties, military action of any kind is impossible.

A total of 2,471 servicemembers have died in Iraq from 2003 to the present, a period of a little over three years. That total is almost exactly one third of the number of military personnel who died on active duty from 1980 to 1982, a comparable time period when no wars were being fought. Until very recently, our armed forces lost servicemen at a greater rate than we have experienced in Iraq, due solely to accidental death.

Do you recall that during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s there was any suggestion, from anyone, that our military policies were somehow disastrous due to fatalities among our servicemen--fatalities that nearly always exceeded those we are now experiencing in Iraq? No, neither do I."