Afghanistan Now 15 Times Deadlier than Iraq

Nobody wants to break the loss of human life down into simple statistics, but it's often necessary to highlight just what exactly is going on. First, consider that one year ago--last September--the hostile fire death rates in Iraq and Afghanistan were roughly equal. But now, in terms of hostile fire death rates, what was once seen as the "safer" theater, Afghanistan has now exploded to the point that it's nearly 15 times more dangerous for American troops than Iraq.

This data is for the last 30 days:

U.S. hostile fire deaths in Iraq: 7
U.S. hostile fire deaths in Afghanistan: 22

Number of U.S. troops in Iraq: 146,000
Number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan: 33,000

Hostile fire death rate in Iraq--7 deaths per 146,000 troops (.005 percent)
Hostile fire death rate in Afghanistan--7 deaths per 10,000 troops (.07 percent)

That's a significant disparity. Afghanistan is now nearly 15 times deadlier than Iraq. It becomes clearer by the day that Iraq is not a "central front" of any kind. More