Military fatalities in Iraq exceeded by military deaths in peacetime - under Clinton

You'd never know it from the sky-is-falling media coverage out of Iraq, but the American military suffered more fatalities in peacetime under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1996 than we have in the last four years fighting in Iraq, as Alicia Colon pointed out in an outstanding column in Tuesday's New York Sun.

"The total military dead in the Iraq war between 2003 and this month stands at about 3,133," Colon writes. "This is tragic, as are all deaths due to war, and we are facing a cowardly enemy unlike any other in our past that hides behind innocent citizens. Each death is blazoned in the headlines of newspapers and Internet sites. What is never compared is the number of military deaths during the Clinton administration: 1,245 in 1993; 1,109 in 1994; 1,055 in 1995; 1,008 in 1996. That's 4,417 deaths in peacetime but, of course, who's counting?"

Tip of the hat to Rush Limbaugh, who cited Colon's column on his show yesterday.