The December War Dead
I’ve updated my Iraq-Vietnam comparison graphs with the number of US dead for December, 2004. I’ve also reduced the previous month’s number slightly, in keeping with the latest stats at Lunaville. Note that this change makes November not quite the worst month ever, if you’re keeping track of such things.
Again, I’m getting these figures from the advanced search tool at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund site, and from Lunaville’s page on Iraq coalition casualties. The figures are for the number of US dead per month, without regard to whether the deaths were combat-related.
The first graph shows the first 22 months of each war. (Click on any image for a larger version.)
Next, the same chart, with the Vietnam numbers extended out to cover the first four years of the war:
Finally, the chart that gives the US death toll for the entire Vietnam war:
Disclaimer: I’m aware that we have more troops in-theater in Iraq than we had during the corresponding parts of the Vietnam War graph. Vietnam didn’t get numbers of US troops comparable to the number currently in Iraq until shortly after Johnson won the 1964 election, some three-and-a-half years after the starting point of the Vietnam graphs above.
These graphs are not intended to show the relative lethality of the two conflicts on a per-soldier basis. I was just curious how the “death profile” of the two wars compared, and these graphs let me see that. You are free to draw your own conclusions.
You can view more discussion of these charts on the following pages, if you’re interested. The graphs are all the same; I just update them in place when the new numbers become available.
- US deaths in Vietnam and Iraq by month
- Iraq war deaths
- November: The cruelest month
- 41 US Iraq war dead in December
- Post-Saddam death toll up slightly
- February death toll down for us, up for them
- Thirteen months in
- Record US deaths in April
- US War Dead in Iraq for May
- US Iraq Deaths Down in June
- US Soldiers Continue to Die in Iraq
- Eighteen Months In
- Another Month’s Progress
- The Bush Legacy in Iraq
- 141 Dead in November
January 7th, 2005 at 9:19 am
Question: What does this do for the soldiers?
January 7th, 2005 at 9:31 am
it puts the facts on the table
oh that’s right, in a Holy War, we don’t count the heathen or the heroes slain
guess what, I am a patriot too but I don’t slavishly follow party
oh that’s right, you must be from one of those redneck states where they think re-instituting slavery is a good idea. Too bad you can’t challenge me to a duel eh?
I have read enough of your posts to know you are jackbooted red-white-n-blue FREEDOM warrior. And a narrowminded twit to boot. Back to your trailer/cave/bunker mr. nutjob.
January 10th, 2005 at 5:22 am
Ah yes, more Leftist “tolerance”
I don’t see how this helps the soldiers. I can see how it attempts to convince people that “iraq is another vietnam” but not how it helps the soldiers.
January 10th, 2005 at 7:21 am
Well, to the extent Iraq _is_ another Vietnam, convincing citizens of that helps the soldiers in that it (potentially) influences elected leaders away from thinking they can squander those soldiers’ lives in a vain effort to win votes.
January 10th, 2005 at 8:44 am
But the reason for the war cannot be to win votes because the war is unpopular, and Bush knows that.
January 24th, 2005 at 10:01 am
Thus we can eliminate the idea that Bush wanting to take out iraq was motivated by power. This leaves wealth and (you would of course never think of this if I were not here, so thank you, it was nothing) morality.