Nobody's Camped Out in Crawford for These Military Casualties

Here are some numbers I'll bet you haven't heard before (from Political Diary and Powerline):

Quote of the Day
"We are trying to fight a war under the auspices of an establishment that is determined -- to put the most charitable face on it -- to emphasize American casualties over all other information about the war... The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq -- now, over 1,800 deaths -- is generally devoid of context. Here's some context: between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286 per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly two to one. I don't recall any great outcry, or gleeful reporting, or erecting of crosses in the President's hometown. In fact, I'll offer a free six-pack to the first person who can find evidence that any liberal expressed concern -- any concern -- about the 18,006 American service members who died accidentally in service of their country from 1983 to 1996" -- John Hinderaker of PowerLineBlog.com

Being in the military is an inherently dangerous business, and unfortunately, training can take a heavy toll. These men and women are all heroes in my book, but they'll never get the recognition they deserve.

This week I watched a 3-part series on D-Days in the Pacific. Everyone knows about D-Day at Normandy, but did you know there were nearly 100 such D-Days in the Pacific War? Most were on much smaller scales than the fighting in France, but deadly nonetheless. If you want to talk about casualties, just take a look at some of the numbers from some of the Pacific islands we took from the Japanese. A couple of examples:

1. On Saipan we suffered 2,000 deaths in 20 days of fighting.
2. On Iwo Jima we had 5,000 deaths in 6 weeks of fighting.

There were dozens more examples like that. We should never become immune to military casualties as every life is precious, but at the same time we need to keep things in perspective.