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Whatever one’s political leanings, we all agree that the primary job of any President is to protect American lives. Everything else is secondary. So let’s see just how our self-declared “wartime president” has done in this regard.
Since the Corona Virus killed its first US victim on February 6th [1] , America’s COVID-19 death toll exceeded 205,000 by September 27th. [2] America’s average daily toll over these 7 ½ months has been more than 960 U.S. deaths. [And this is only the ‘official’ count; widely believed to be an under-count.]
The American Battlefield Trust enumerated about 6,800 Revolutionary War combat deaths, 17,000 deaths to disease and another 10,000 who died as POW captives. Over the course of the war (4/19/1775 to 9/3/1783), this averaged about 11 (eleven) per day.[3]
In 2012, the New York Times reported updated figures on Civil War combat deaths to ~ 750,000. [4] This was a daily average throughout the war at about 504 per day. (This does not include deaths to illness.) [5]
In the 8 months of the Spanish-American war (4/21/1898 to 12/10/1898), a total of 379 Americans were killed in combat – an average of just three (3) American deaths every two days. [6]
In World War I, US combat deaths of 116,516 between 4/6/1917 and 11/11/1918 averaged 200 per day.
For World War II, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that, on average, 220 U.S. service personnel died per day — nearly 6,600 every month — for the 1,364 days that America fought. (This number excludes the estimated 21,000 merchant marine & 1,900Coast Guard deaths.) [7]
When the Corona virus first appeared our President mocked the Chinese and called reports of its risk to Americans a “Democrat hoax”. He’s since admitted in a Feb 7th interview with journalist Bob Woodward that he knew from the git-go that the virus was “more deadly than even your strenuous flus.” [8]
As the election approaches, the only indisputable fact is that the only hoax is our President. Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike need a new President — one who values the lives of every American more than his ego.
Matthew Shulman
Groton, CT
[3] American Battlefield Trust (American Revolution Facts)
[4] Guy Gugliotta, “New Estimate Raises Civil War Death Toll,” New York Times, April 3
[5] https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/statistics-civil-war