There Were More Military Deaths During The Clinton Presidency Than During the George W. Bush Presidency-Fiction!

There Were More Military Deaths During The Clinton Presidency Than During the George W. Bush Presidency-Fiction!

 
Summary of eRumor:
The forwarded email lists year-by-year statistics of military deaths from 1980 through 2006 and concludes that there were more deaths during the years of the presidency of Bill Clinton, when there was no war, than during the years of George W. Bush when there was war in Iraq and conflict in Afghanistan.
The Truth:
Whoever assembled this eRumor claimed that it was based on statistics from the U.S. Government, but the figures in the eRumor do not match the figures in the actual government report it references.
The eRumor includes a link to the report, which was dated June 29, 2007, and prepared by the Congressional Research Service.  It is titled American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics.
Whoever created this forwarded email exaggerated the death statistics from the Clinton years and reduced the actual numbers from the Bush years.  The eRumor, for example. claims that there were more than 14,000 deaths during the Clinton presidency and a little more than 7,000 deaths during the presidency of George W. Bush.  In reality the opposite is true.  There were 7500 military deaths during the Clinton years and as of the date of the report, 8792 deaths during the Bush presidency.
Here is a comparison of what the email claims compared with with the government report actually says:

YeareRumor
Figures
Actual
Figures
Presidency
199312131213Clinton
199410751075Clinton
199524651040Clinton
19962318974Clinton
1997817817Clinton
19982252827Clinton
19991984796Clinton
20001983758Clinton
Totals:141077500 
2001890891George W. Bush
20021007999George W. Bush
200314101228George W. Bush
200418871874George W. Bush
20059191942George W. Bush
20069201858George W. Bush
Totals:70338792

 
 
The eRumor also says that there were more deaths during the year 1980 in the Carter years than the worst year under George W. Bush.  Even with the corrected figures, that appears to be true.  There were 2392 deaths in 1980 and the highest number of deaths during any given year at the time of the date of the report were 1942 in 2005.
Updated 9/11/08