thedrifter
07-24-07, 06:12 AM
Study: Non-combat deaths in Iraq decline
By Thomas Frank - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Jul 24, 2007 6:10:34 EDT
BAGHDAD — Non-combat U.S. troop deaths in Iraq have fallen for three years, largely because of fewer vehicle accidents, and account for the smallest percentage of fatalities for any war except the Korean conflict.
A USA Today analysis of Pentagon data shows 105 U.S. troops died in non-combat incidents, including suicide and illness, in the year ending June 30. During the first year of the war, there were 193 non-combat deaths, about half of U.S. casualties in Iraq.
The fall-off in non-combat deaths comes amid a spike in battle fatalities. There were 939 U.S. combat deaths in the year ending June 30, the most for any 12-month period of the war.
In the war’s first full year, 387 troops died in combat, Pentagon figures show. Non-combat deaths accounted for 11 percent of U.S. deaths in Iraq in the year ending June 30.
The decline in deaths off the battlefield is good news, Virginia Military Institute historian Malcolm Muir said, noting that in every war until World War II, more U.S. troops died outside of combat.
Non-combat deaths are dropping because troops do little driving unless they are on missions, meaning fewer accidents, said F. Andy Messing, executive director of the National Defense Council Foundation in Alexandria, Va.
Unlike troops’ past campaigns, U.S. forces in Iraq are largely confined to heavily fortified bases and combat outposts. “People just aren’t going out unless it’s for a specific mission,” said Messing, a retired Army special forces major. “It’s a very different environment than in the Vietnam War or even the first Gulf War.”
Leading causes of non-combat deaths in Iraq are vehicle accidents, gunshot wounds — accidents and suicides — and air crashes, Pentagon data show. The number of troops killed in vehicle accidents fell from 67 in the first year of the Iraq war to 23 in the most recent year, Pentagon reports show.
Another factor: improved military medicine. Injured troops who, in past wars, would have stayed in the country until stabilized are now quickly flown to Germany. It’s “an extraordinary change in medical doctrine,” Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said.
The relatively small number of non-combat fatalities in Iraq — 645 of 3,631 total deaths — contrasts with the 1991 Gulf War. Then, more troops died outside of combat than in fighting — 235 versus 147.
“That war was very short and relatively chaotic,” said Dennis McBride, president of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies outside Washington.
In the current war, troops have had time to learn.
“On flying missions, lessons get passed down to crews,” improving safety, McBride said.
For most of military history, non-combat deaths — particularly from disease and cold — have far outnumbered combat deaths. Disease was the leading cause of death in World War I, Muir said. It wasn’t until World War II, when medicine had vastly improved, that battlefield deaths outnumbered non-combat deaths, Pentagon figures show.
Ellie
By Thomas Frank - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Jul 24, 2007 6:10:34 EDT
BAGHDAD — Non-combat U.S. troop deaths in Iraq have fallen for three years, largely because of fewer vehicle accidents, and account for the smallest percentage of fatalities for any war except the Korean conflict.
A USA Today analysis of Pentagon data shows 105 U.S. troops died in non-combat incidents, including suicide and illness, in the year ending June 30. During the first year of the war, there were 193 non-combat deaths, about half of U.S. casualties in Iraq.
The fall-off in non-combat deaths comes amid a spike in battle fatalities. There were 939 U.S. combat deaths in the year ending June 30, the most for any 12-month period of the war.
In the war’s first full year, 387 troops died in combat, Pentagon figures show. Non-combat deaths accounted for 11 percent of U.S. deaths in Iraq in the year ending June 30.
The decline in deaths off the battlefield is good news, Virginia Military Institute historian Malcolm Muir said, noting that in every war until World War II, more U.S. troops died outside of combat.
Non-combat deaths are dropping because troops do little driving unless they are on missions, meaning fewer accidents, said F. Andy Messing, executive director of the National Defense Council Foundation in Alexandria, Va.
Unlike troops’ past campaigns, U.S. forces in Iraq are largely confined to heavily fortified bases and combat outposts. “People just aren’t going out unless it’s for a specific mission,” said Messing, a retired Army special forces major. “It’s a very different environment than in the Vietnam War or even the first Gulf War.”
Leading causes of non-combat deaths in Iraq are vehicle accidents, gunshot wounds — accidents and suicides — and air crashes, Pentagon data show. The number of troops killed in vehicle accidents fell from 67 in the first year of the Iraq war to 23 in the most recent year, Pentagon reports show.
Another factor: improved military medicine. Injured troops who, in past wars, would have stayed in the country until stabilized are now quickly flown to Germany. It’s “an extraordinary change in medical doctrine,” Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said.
The relatively small number of non-combat fatalities in Iraq — 645 of 3,631 total deaths — contrasts with the 1991 Gulf War. Then, more troops died outside of combat than in fighting — 235 versus 147.
“That war was very short and relatively chaotic,” said Dennis McBride, president of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies outside Washington.
In the current war, troops have had time to learn.
“On flying missions, lessons get passed down to crews,” improving safety, McBride said.
For most of military history, non-combat deaths — particularly from disease and cold — have far outnumbered combat deaths. Disease was the leading cause of death in World War I, Muir said. It wasn’t until World War II, when medicine had vastly improved, that battlefield deaths outnumbered non-combat deaths, Pentagon figures show.
Ellie