Google "Iraq Death Toll" and see what you come up with. I found stuff like "Media Underplays Death Toll" and "Iraq Death Toll Reaches New High" and "Iraq Death Toll 'Soared Post-War' ". Anyone with a lick of common sense knows that the first one is a complete lie and there's more to the others. The rest of the stuff isn't much different from these.
Some perspective. As of the 18th of January 2005, here are the numbers since the begining of the operations in Iraq (3/19/03) (from antiwar.com - no way in hell I'm giving them a link):
Total US Forces Fatalities: 1369
US Forces Fatalities from Combat: 1080
US Forces Wounded: 10,252
Well okay, but for those of you not planning to visit lovely and scenic Iraq anytime soon those are just numbers. Mind you they seem like pretty big numbers. So here are some numbers that might mean more to you and that might provide some perspective.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data for the most recent available year (2003) the number of Americans killed on our highways was 42,643. That's not a typo and I linked it to the report from which it came. Eight States had higher fatality rates in a single year on their highways than all of the US casualties in Iraq in 22 months of fighting. California - 4215, Florida - 3169, Georgia - 1603, Illinois - 1453, New York - 1491, North Carolina - 1531, Pennsylvania - 1577, and Texas - 3675 (4 Blue states and 4 Red states for those obsessed by such things).
According to the FBI, two states had more murders than US Casualties. In 2003 California had 2407 murders and Texas had 1418. Overall the US had 16, 503 murders. Of course if you only get your news from the MSM, the only one that was important was Laci Peterson. While I'm on the MSM subject, the State of New York had 934 murders in 2003. That's just over 77 per month. So in the 22 months since the US invaded Iraq that would be roughly 1712 murders in New York. So why don't you hear Dan Rather, Brian Williams or Peter Jennings - all of whose flagship stations are based in New York - reporting on the "staggering death toll in New York" or "the mounting death toll from insurgent New York criminals". Yeah, don't hold your breath waiting on that.
Suicides in the US (most recent I could find was 2002 from the CDC) were 22,173. Where's the outrage? More than 16 times more Americans commit suicide in a single year than have died in 22 monts in Iraq. Sadly nearly 24% of those suicides were in the 15-24 year old age group.
Certainly as a percentage of the total populations, Iraq is significantly more dangerous. However, looking at the raw numbers you see a much more complete picture. The MSM wants to shock you with the raw number. 1369. Some folks can say that that was the size of their High School Graduating Class (or double the size or 10 times the size) and they can get a feel for just exactly how many brave Americans have laid down their life in Iraq. It is a big number, but in PERSPECTIVE it is not unsurprising or even large in comparison to the number of Americans who die on US Soil in any given 22 month period. Think about it, nearly 4 times as many teenagers/young adults committed suicide in the single year of 2002 than have been killed (combat and non-combat) in Iraq in nearly 2 years (5239 vs 1369).
Try as the Left might, they cannot recast this as "another Viet Nam". The conflict in Viet Nam lasted from 1960 to 1971 and had 58,219 killed or presumed killed. The how we got there and why we were there is as murky today as it was then. There is no way that the US will continue to have the large force presence in Iraq for 10 years, we won't see even a 10th of the casualties Viet Nam had and we all know that we are in Iraq to beat back global terrorism, to fight Islamofacism and to bring freedom and stabililty to the Persian Gulf (if you think this was only about WMDs you are greatly mistaken, it was part of it and the driving urgency of it, but certainly not the only reason... go back and read the statements and speeches).
Quick recap:
US Forces Fatalities (combat and non-combat) in last 22 months in Iraq: 1369
US Forces Fatalities (combat and non-combat) in 10+ years in Viet Nam: 58219
California Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 4215
Florida Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 3169
Georgia Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 1603
Illinois Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 1453
New York Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 1491
North Carolina Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 1531
Pennsylvania Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 1577
Texas Traffic Fatalities in 2003: 3675
Murders in California in 2003: 2407
Murders in Texas in 2003: 1418
Murders in the US in 2003: 16503
Deaths from Uintentional Injury in the US (2002): 105615
Deaths from Suicide in the US (2002): 22173
Anyone but me notice that the smallest number on that list is from Iraq?
Sources:
Crime data is from the FBI Crime in the United States 1984-2003
Highway fatality data is from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration searchable data base using this search.
Unintentional Injury and Suicide data comes from the CDC "Health, United States, 2004" and from this set of spreadsheets in the report in particular