Scoring The War

June 25th, 2007 Posted By Pat Dollard.

dead jihadi

This year the U.S. has killed roughly 650 terrorists a month. That compares with about 37 U.S. combat deaths per month, through May.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 6/25/2007

War And The Media: Day after day, Americans are treated to a never-ending, mind-numbing parade of statistics about the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But what about the terrorists?

One way the media distort Americans’ view of the ongoing war against terrorists is by focusing on just one side in the conflict: ours. Whether it’s the daily body count or alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, the public could be forgiven for thinking the U.S. is not only losing the war, but behaving badly in doing so.

But neither is true. This year, for instance, the U.S. has killed roughly 650 terrorists a month, according to published reports and Defense Department estimates. That compares with about 37 U.S. combat deaths per month, through May.

The ratio, thus, is about 18 terrorists killed in combat for every allied soldier killed. And that doesn’t include the current offensive in Diayala Province, Operation Arrowhead Ripper, which dispatched 159 enemy combatants in just the first five days.

Since the war began, we’ve lost about 70 troops a month. This compares with 526 a month in Vietnam, more than 900 a month in Korea and 6,639 a month during World War II.

In other words, by any meaningful metric employed, the U.S. is winning this war. But it will never be reported that way.

This is nothing new. Go back to Vietnam. Remember the “five o’clock follies,” when the press routinely ridiculed Pentagon casualty reports? The Vietnam syndrome continues to this day.

Only now it’s the media misreporting the numbers. Just weeks into the war in 2003, we started hearing the now-oft-repeated canard that Iraq was worse off with the U.S. than with Saddam. This is so plainly wrong that it must be called what it is: a lie.

And yet, it’s repeated to this day. Here again, the numbers tell the tale. In his 24 years as Iraq’s Stalinist supreme leader, Saddam Hussein killed at least 2 million people. That averages out to about 6,944 a month for the better part of three decades.

Most responsible estimates show that, at most, 60,000 or so civilians have been killed since the war started, about 1,200 a month.

Moreover, no one doubts that Saddam was responsible for all 2 million of his deaths. In the case of the U.S., most of the civilian deaths come from al-Qaida and other terrorists, not U.S. troops.

We got to thinking about this as a result of Operation Arrowhead Ripper, which began a week ago. It involves some 10,000 U.S. troops trying to rid Diyala Province of al-Qaida terrorists. It’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest, operations since the war began.

And yet, when we looked for news of how this huge effort in the war on terror was going, the focus was all on American fatalities.

Since Vietnam, the media have approached each military conflict with the same template: “U.S. Wrong, Foe Right.” And they’ve reported accordingly. That’s why wanton murderers of women and children are generously called “fighters” by our own media, while errors by our own troops are tarred as war crimes.

So, in a sense, we are losing a war — the war for Americans’ hearts and minds, fought daily on America’s TV screens and front pages. But in the real war, our troops are fighting bravely and well — and it’s about time someone started keeping score.


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23 Responses

  1. BlueOval8950

    And I just read that Dick Lugar has said the current strategy isn’t working. Maybe someone should send him a link to this story. But then again according to most of the morons on the hill, we lost a long time ago. I think it is time for a wholesale house cleaning of Congress.

  2. House 6

    It’s all about perspective. I got into an argument with my mother tonight after she started lamenting about the war and how the nightly body count on the news ws reminiscent of Vietnam. I reminded her that 2900+ soldiers have died in Iraq from hostile fire in 4 years. All the others that are reported are non-hostile deaths, but still make the counter because they died while serving in Iraq. I tried to point out that best guess estimates show almost the exact number of US soldiers died in ONE DAY of battle - June 6, 1944. Worse than that, 6326 Americans lost their lives on Iwo Jima.

    I can’t equate one American life with any number of enemy dead. It could never compute. However, all things being evenly considered, we ARE winning in Iraq with an all volunteer force of fewer soldiers on the battlefield, sustaining fewer deaths, all with a far crazier enemy than we’ve ever encountered. Everyone in this country, in fact throughout the world, should be lauding our efforts. And if they aren’t, they should be scared to death and running for cover of darkness because they’re next.

  3. LftBhndAgn

    Holy Crap!! Wouldn’t it be great if the MSM would report the terrorist death toll on a daily basis?

    Thanks Pat. Cheers again :beer:

  4. TJ

    thanks for this article pat. Finally statistics of the whole war and comparisons. this is ammunition against the naysayers including those on this site.

    :smile:

  5. It's Our Wits That Make Us Men

    Simple Math…

    Not only have our total losses not yet come NEAR those of previous wars, but our rate of losses are so small in comparison to those of other wars as to be regarded as MINOR casualties….

  6. Bryan Simmons

    I wrote a post about this on my blog and trackbacked it here.

    I created a table that lists the wars mentioned in that article and the casualties per month. The difference in numbers is dramatic when you see them in a table.

    Our media sickens me. What’s ironic about it all is that our boys are over there fighting for the very rights that have allowed so many in this country to become spoiled. Our armed forces have kept us safe long enough for us to scratch a really luxurious existence out of this earth, an existence that allows some to feel safe and justified in attacking the very people who guard and die for them.

    I suppose that as long as our military has honor, our media doesn’t have to.

  7. John Cunningham

    Last night Gibson on ABCs Evening News reported the homicide bombing at the Baghdad hotel. Not one word about the MAJOR OPERATION going on up the road.

  8. EdinTampa

    Bryan:
    I am interested to see those numbers. please give your Blog link.

    We can expect the liberal media to not cover the war with balance… just continue to do your own work and challenge them when you get a chance. Praise your sources… Human Events, News Max, National Review, Weekly Standard, talk radio & the various conservative blogs and military blogs and last but not least PAT DOLLARD!

    They hate me at work, probably going to get fired soon but that’s ok with me.

  9. mindy abraham

    I wish the media would report on both aspects of this-people might change their minds about this-oh well, one can wish. :sad:

  10. azbastard

    Bryan you hit the nail on the head..we have become a spoiled society..They have no idea what it would be like to live in fear. Never knowing when the door will be kicked in and you and your family killed. Hell I still get in arguments with people that still think this war is all about the oil.

  11. John Cunningham

    Edin Tampa, cool you jets. Work is like a bar, one should never discuss politics or religion. Best to say, ‘oh, really, I didn’t know that’. The best time to look for a job is when you have one. Bite your tongue, look around for something else, then make the move. When looking for a job you give an air of confidence to any prospective employer and that’s because you have a job. Without one you look a little desperate. Opens you up to be taken advantage of. Don’t let them get to you.

  12. Dan

    Great post House 6. Well said.

  13. Steve in NC

    John Cunningham -

    You were watching ABC? you sissy, if you were a real man you would watch brain williams on NBC.

    ( sarcasm )

  14. Steve in NC

    Believe Pat or reid? or lugar? or edwards?

    House 6

    excellent comments

  15. 0311inohio

    Eden in Tampa: War Casualties/Month

    http://ourwits.blogspot.com/

  16. John Cunningham

    Steve in NC, LOL, CMU (cracked me up)(just made that up)(I think) Call me the eternal optimist. ABC has a ‘pretty good track record’. Haven’t bothered with CBS since Cronkite surrendered us in ‘68. Well, I’m lying a little, been ‘religiously’ watching CBS Sunday Morning for 25 years. And, thank God, just never tuned to NBC. From what I hear, no loss.

  17. HJ in VA

    All ya’ll got some great comments this morning! Edin Tampa - I’m with ya, pal…I work around lawyers alot and they know better than to argue with me about the war. Heck, I work for the government and had a gentlement come into my office to shake hands with me because I have a Bible on my desk! - Cheer up - the tide is turning….

  18. MikeP

    I’m sorry that one American or ally has to die in this war, but let’s get those dead terrorists shithead numbers on the air in the USA. At least FOX could air those numbers–that would help.
    Damn good report!
    Thanks again, Pat.
    God bless our MILITARY HEROES and PAT DOLLARD.

  19. Chris

    I wonder what would happen if the MSM reported deaths from car accidents the same way they reported deaths in Iraq. There were 42,636 car accident deaths in the U.S. during 2005 (http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html). This works out to 115 per day, which is more than the number of troops we lose in Iraq per month.

    I bet if the MSM started each broadcast with a picture of each car accident victim, and every time an accident happened, there was a front page story about it that was heavily biased against cars, a movement to ban cars would happen overnight.

    As Pat pointed out, its important to keep statistics in perspective.

  20. Brian H

    “Go back to Vietnam. Remember the “five o’clock follies,” when the press routinely ridiculed Pentagon casualty reports? The Vietnam syndrome continues to this day.

    Only now it’s the media misreporting the numbers. ”
    IIRC, hasn’t it since been determined that the Mil guesstimates turn out (per NV records) to have been remarkably accurate? One more black mark for the MSM which the MSM will never report. Ghaahhh.

  21. Brian H

    IIRC, again, the predecessor site to !No Pasaran! (?? I forget the name??) had a running total called the “no-body” count, which was the accumulating total difference between Saddam’s harvesting rate and the current civilian death totals. By the time he gave it up in ‘04 or ‘05 I think it was up in the ¼ million range. Heh.

  22. Dan

    Edin:

    I’m with you….find an employer who thinks like you do. If you were in my neck of the woods (Va), I could set you up with an employer who loves those web sites.

    Stick to your guns. All the best.

  23. Pereiraville » Who’s winning?

    […] Now, no matter what else you do with your day, take 3 or 4 minutes to read this I stole from Pat Dollard. By any meaningful metric employed, the U.S. is winning this war. But it will never be reported that … […]

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