I wasn't that surprised. It's been around for a while. It's wrong, of course, but it's been around.

Here's the link to Snopes with the skinny on the bungled numbers.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/m...tary/ deaths.asp
grumps | 04.16.08 - 12:28 pm | #

Marine Corps Times weighed in too: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/..._email_032508w/

A check of the CRS source document cited in the e-mail on U.S. military deaths shows that the e- mail ’s author got it right for only three of the eight years of the Clinton administration.

Figures for the other five years are off by a wide margin. For example, the e-mail cites 2,465 active-duty deaths in 1995; the figure in the CRS report is 1,040. For 1998, the e-mail cites 2,252 deaths; the CRS figure is 827.

For the six years of the Bush administration, the e-mail gets none of the figures correct. Some are off only slightly — in 2001, for example, the e-mail figure is 890 deaths, the CRS figure, 891 — but other years are far off the mark.

In 2005, the e-mail lists a figure of 919 deaths; the figure in the CRS report is 1,942. Similarly, the figures for 2006 are 920 in the e-mail, 1,858 in the CRS report.
Superweasel | 04.16.08 - 12:41 pm | #