Reality-based statistics

Seven Days:

183 -- Number of U.S. military personnel killed in Afghanistan since November 2001
1644 -- Number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since March 2003
36 -- Number of female U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
271 -- Number of female soldiers wounded in Iraq
18 -- Number of coalition forces over the age of 50 killed in Iraq
91.6 -- Percentage of U.S. fatalities in Iraq that have occurred since the fall of Baghdad
12,348 -- Number of U.S. military personnel wounded in action in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense
31,000 -- Estimated number of Iraq War veterans who have sought disability benefits for physical and/or psychological traumas
$5.3 billion -- Proposed cuts by the Bush administration in veterans' medical services by 2010
$7.1 billion -- Amount of revenue earned in Iraq by Halliburton in 2004
12 -- Number of government investigations pending against Halliburton
30 cents -- Amount of each Vermonter's tax dollar devoted to defense spending
19 cents -- Amount of each Vermonter's tax dollar devoted to paying interest on the U.S. debt
3 cents -- Amount of each Vermonter's tax dollar devoted to veterans' benefits

(Casualty figures are current as of May 24, 2005. Compiled by Ken Picard)

Thanks to the 18 1/2 Minute Gap for the reference (dude, fix your post submission).

Note, that's another 15 Americans killed in Iraq since Memorial Day - just since Monday!

Paul Krugman on Memorial Day:

Two things make the burden of repeated deployments even harder to bear. One is the intensity of the conflict. In Slate, Phillip Carter and Owen West, who adjusted casualty figures to take account of force size and improvements in battlefield medicine (which allow more of the severely wounded to survive), concluded that "infantry duty in Iraq circa 2004 comes out just as intense as infantry duty in Vietnam circa 1966."

The other is the way in which the administration cuts corners when it comes to supporting the troops. From their foot-dragging on armoring Humvees to their apparent policy of denying long-term disability payments to as many of the wounded as possible, officials seem almost pathologically determined to nickel-and-dime those who put their lives on the line for their country.

Now, predictably, the supply of volunteers is drying up.