September 8, 2004 [LINK]

One thousand fallen heroes

The one-thousandth American military death was recorded in Iraq yesterday. Of this total, 75 percent were the result of hostile enemy action. Though our lossess in Iraq have been higher than most people expected, it is important to put this in context. For one thing, a high (though uncertain) proportion of U.S. losses have occurred in ambushes and terrorist attacks, not combat per se. In addition, the average of 59 deaths per month thus far (17 months) ranks very low compared to previous wars. Data on U.S. deaths in past wars are now included on the War page, which has been thoroughly revised. The various war-related pages have been revised as well, and the new Iraq war page includes an updated monthly table of U.S. fatalities in Iraq.