_______________________________________________Quote from hapaboy:
Loaded question...how many did we lose in a couple of world wars and Korea?
How many American lives is it worth to make Iraq a stable democracy if doing so may transform the region, as happened to Eastern Europe?
Under Clinton we suffered a little over 900 military deaths per year. Under Bush so far we have suffered something over 700 per year even with the war. So leaving Iraq won't reduce that to zero.
To get an accurate picture of the life cost you have to look at killed in action figures only because there is a high accident figure in the military even in peace time.
So far we have averaged about 65 deaths per month which is the lowest number in all of the wars in our history except the Revolutionary war which was 10 per month less.
Conflict KIA/Month
Revolutionary War 55
War of 1812 75
Mexican War 87
Civil War: Union 2,293
Confederate 1,553
Combined 3,846
Spanish-American War 96
World War I 2,816
World War II 6,639
Korean War 909
Vietnam War 526
Gulf War 148