To borrow from an old saying, "figures don't lie, liars figure...........but the media misquotes, perverts, omits, and yes even lies". 

Whatever your politics and however you feel about the current administration, this report is interesting. As tragic as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the below statistics:

The annual fatalities, by any cause, of military members while actively serving in the armed forces from 1980 through 2006:

    1980 2,392 (Carter)
    1981 2,380 (Reagan)
    1984 1,999 (Reagan)
    1988 1,819 (Reagan)
    1989 1,636 (George H W)
    1990 1,508 (George H W)
    1991 1,787 (George H W)
    1992 1,293 (George H W)
    1993 1,213 ( Clinton )
    1994 1,075 ( Clinton )
    1995 2,465 ( Clinton )
    1996 2,318 ( Clinton )
    1997 817 ( Clinton )
    1998 2,252 ( Clinton )
    1999 1,984 ( Clinton )
    2000 1,983 ( Clinton )
    2001 890 (George W)
    2002 1,007 (George W)
    2003 1,410 (George W)
    2004 1,887 (George W)
    2005 919 (George W)
    2006 920 (George W)
    2007 899 (George W)

    Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,107 deaths
    George W. years (2001-2007): 7,932 deaths

Are you surprised with these figures?  They indicate the loss from the two latest Middle East conflicts are less than the loss of military personnel during Clinton's presidency when America wasn't even involved in a war--unless you include Bosnia, Mogadishu and Somalia. Even more surprising is that in 1980, during Carter presidency, there were 2,392 US military fatalities!

These figures appear to indicate many members of our media and politicians pick and choose the info on which they report--that they present only those 'facts' that support their agenda.

Consider the latest census of Americans. It shows the following distribution of American citizens by race:

    European descent     69.12 percent
    Hispanic                   12.50 percent
    Black                       12.30 percent
    Asian                        3.70 percent
    Native American        1.00 percent
    Other                        2.60 percent

Many members of the media lead us to believe the military death ratio is off balanced compared to the distribution by race in America Here are the fatalities by race over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom.

    European descent    74.31 percent
    Hispanic                  10.74 percent
    Black                        9.67 percent
    Asian                        1.81 percent
    Native American        1.09 percent
    Other                        0.33 percent

Surprised again?

Hopefully, between now and November, intelligent Americans can decipher--

    the facts from the spin.
    the spinners from the leaders.
    those who seek even more power from those that seek justice.
    the dividers from the uniters.

These statistics are published by the Congressional Research Service and may be confirmed at:  http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf
www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf