Military Death Rate Same as Under Jimmy Carter

A recent web post (take it for what it's worth) has noted that deaths per 100,000 soliders is actually about the same today as they were under president Jimmy Carter.

Back in Jimmy's day, people died as a result of accidents, whereas today a significant portion of the deaths are from hostile fire.

This is a statistic I've never seen in the MSM. As some have pointed out, those service members that died under Carter made just as dear a sacrifice to their country as those that died during time of war. But I don't recall quite the level of hysteria during Jimmy's years to reduce accident rates as we here today to bring the troops home. Any death is unacceptable, and both war and accidental deaths are due to behavior we can change. If the graph is true, I find the dual standard very interesting.

The original author made some points that seem overblown. I've found a good discussion of it on Winds Of Change for those who would like to read about this further.

Here is a bigger version of the graph.