That’s right it’s been 3 years since we started the war in Iraq. You will of course hear 4 years in the news because that sounds longer and technically we have started the 4th year of our presence there. What you won’t hear as much any more is our causalty rate. Why? Because it’s going down and mentioning that would be too close to good news. The causalty rate in Iraq has been around 2 deaths per day most months with a few months hitting an average 3 per day. This year, however, the causalty rate has dropped to about 1 per day. Of course here in America we value all human life (so we claim) and so 1 death is 1 too many, but let’s put the war in perspective.
Leading Causes Of Death In America
| Cause | Annually * | Per Day |
| Heart Disease (all) | 725,000 | 1986 |
| Cancer (all) | 556,000 | 1523 |
| Coronary Heart Disease (Heart Attacks & Angina) | 479,000 | 1312 |
| American Health Care System** | 225,000 | 616 |
| … | … | … |
| Auto Accidents (all) | 40,000 | 109 |
| Drunk Driving | 16,000 | 43 |
| Falling Down | 15,000 | 41 |
| Poisoning | 9,000 | 24 |
| Drowning | 4,000 | 10.9 |
| … | … | … |
| War In Irag (3 year average) | 766 | 2.09 |
*rounded to the nearest thousand – most data was from the year 2002
** deaths due to unnecessary surgery,medication errors, hospital errors, infections in hospitals, and negative effects of drugs (http://www.health-care-reform.net/causedeath.htm)
Not to deminish the loss of our soldiers but by the numbers the Iraq War death toll has been blown way out of purportion. We should be out running or handing out yellow bands instead of having a coronary (pun intended) every time an IED goes off in Iraq… Unfortunately the combination of Anti-Bush sentiment and old hippies longing for their glory days of sex, drugs and Vietnam — have clouded the national debate on the important issue of Iraq.
Oh and if are a part of the magority of Americans (according to a recent AP poll) that considers Abortion Murder… you would have a new number one killer for our chart at a rate of 1,290,000 per year or 3534 per day. About the total of the top two leading causes of death in America combined.
