US Troop Deaths in Afghan War Under Obama Now Twice That Under Bush

Megan Iorio
Just Foreign Policy
October 17, 2011

This weekend marked a new milestone for the war in Afghanistan: the total number of US troops killed in the war has doubled since President Obama took office, according to icasualties.org and our US Troops in Afghanistan: Obama vs Bush web counter. That means that two-thirds of the total US troop deaths have occurred in the last two years and eight months, which accounts for roughly a third of the duration of the war to date.

1728 US troops have died in Afghanistan since October 7, 2001, with 1153 of those deaths having occurred since President Obama’s inauguration. 575 US troops died in Afghanistan during President Bush’s term in office.

We’ve all heard the argument before: Bush ignored Afghanistan, Obama did what he promised by escalating the war, and since more troops means more deaths, we shouldn’t be surprised by the increased death rate.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 11:13 am

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