Counting costs

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

As the war in Iraq prepares to enter its fifth year, it's worth looking at the costs.

It's been said that the U.S. military death rate is low compared to 20th century wars. As of Feb. 14, at least 3,128 U.S. armed forces had been killed in Iraq. That compares to U.S. military deaths of 116,516 in World War I (1917-18), 405,399 in World War II (1941-45), 52,246 in Korea (1950-53); and 58,156 in Vietnam (1964-73).

Two major reasons for the difference are improvements in battlefield medicine and equipment. A recent Harvard University study, using data from the Department of Veterans' Affairs, found that there are about 16 "nonmortally wounded" soldiers for every death in Iraq. That ratio in Vietnam was more than six times higher at 2.6 soldiers wounded per death. It was eight times higher in World Wars I and II and Korea. Basically, that means that high numbers of troops are being wounded, but the percentage who die is much lower than in previous wars. If the ratios were similar, the number of U.S. military deaths would be in the 12,000-15,000 range.

There have been no coalition soldiers killed in only two provinces, both in the north under Kurdish control. Some 44% of U.S. military deaths in 2006 were in Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold outside Iran's sphere of influence.

While the mortality rate for troops is low compared to other wars, the toll is still high in other ways. The same Harvard study found that about 20% of Iraq War survivors have major head or spinal injuries, 18% had serious wounds and 6% are amputees; and the VA treated 20,638 Iraq War veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder in just the first quarter of 2006. An estimated 7,000 veterans will require lifetime continuous care.

The low casualty rate also may stem in part from deployment rates. Consider, 4.7 million U.S. troops fought in World War I; 16 million in World War II; 5.7 million in Korea; and 8.7 million in Vietnam. The U.S. has deployed approximately 1 million military to Iraq - 40% of whom are reservists or in the National Guard.

There also have been 56,468 to 62,189 Iraqi civilians and 6,125 Iraqi police and military killed in the war, 256 coalition forces, 388 contractors and 111 journalists.

Financially, the war in Iraq has cost the U.S. more than $300 billion so far. The Vietnam War cost the U.S. $549 billion in today's dollars. Estimates for the final cost of the Iraq War range from $600 billion to $1 trillion.

None of this has to do with whether we should have started the war in Iraq or what we should do now. These are just statistics. But these cold, hard statistics do represent human lives that add up to far more than numbers.