Military Deaths, Furiously Spun

Jonah Goldberg links approvingly to “a pretty powerful op-ed by Alicia Colon in the NY Sun” and then goes on to provide this quote:

The total military dead in the Iraq war between 2003 and this month stands at about 3,133. 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?

But Goldberg expresses some doubt about the numbers. And when even Goldberg doubts the numbers intended to cast Clinton in a poor light, some serious spinning is going on. Long time readers might remember I looked at military deaths.

The raw data is here. You can look at the data and see the trends for yourself, or you can look at something that was pulled out of Alicia’s colon.

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I was going to update this following Jonah’s new posting, but Brooklynite is way ahead of me.