The Real Death Toll Of The War On Terror

America has been involved in a war on terror for too many years now. I’m not talking about the war in Iraq, although that is part of it. I am talking about a war on terror that started many, many years ago. The true beginning of the war is arguable, you might say it began in 1979 with the Iran Hostage crisis or 1982 with the hostages taken in Lebanon, but I am going to start in 1983 with three separate attacks on the USA. Two were in Lebanon and one in Kuwait.

 Here is a list of terrorist attacks on Americans starting in 1983, the statistics in this list come from infoplease.com:

1983 April 18, Beirut, Lebanon: U.S. embassy destroyed in suicide car-bomb attack; 63 dead, including 17 Americans. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Oct. 23, Beirut, Lebanon: Shiite suicide bombers exploded truck near U.S. military barracks at Beirut airport, killing 241 marines. Minutes later a second bomb killed 58 French paratroopers in their barracks in West Beirut.Dec. 12, Kuwait City, Kuwait: Shiite truck bombers attacked the U.S. embassy and other targets, killing 5 and injuring 80.

1984Sept. 20, east Beirut, Lebanon: truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. embassy annex, killing 24, including 2 U.S. military.

Dec. 3, Beirut, Lebanon: Kuwait Airways Flight 221, from Kuwait to Pakistan, hijacked and diverted to Tehran. 2 Americans killed.1985

June 14, Beirut, Lebanon: TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome hijacked to Beirut by Hezbollah terrorists and held for 17 days. A U.S. Navy diver executed.Oct. 7, Mediterranean Sea: gunmen attack Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro. One U.S. tourist killed. Hijacking linked to Libya.

Dec. 18, Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria: airports in Rome and Vienna were bombed, killing 20 people, 5 of whom were Americans. Bombing linked to Libya.1986

April 2, Athens, Greece:A bomb exploded aboard TWA flight 840 en route from Rome to Athens, killing 4 Americans and injuring 9.April 5, West Berlin, Germany: Libyans bombed a disco frequented by U.S. servicemen, killing 2 and injuring hundreds.

1988Dec. 21, Lockerbie, Scotland: N.Y.-bound Pan-Am Boeing 747 exploded in flight from a terrorist bomb and crashed into Scottish village, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on the ground. Passengers included 35 Syracuse University students and many U.S. military personnel. Libya formally admitted responsibility 15 years later (Aug. 2003) and offered $2.7 billion compensation to victims’ families.

1993Feb. 26, New York City:bomb exploded in basement garage of the World Trade Center, killing 6 and injuring at least 1,040 others. In 1995, militant Islamist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 9 others were convicted of conspiracy charges, and in 1998, Ramzi Yousef, believed to have been the mastermind, was convicted of the bombing. Al-Qaeda involvement is suspected

1995Nov. 13, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: car bomb exploded at U.S. military headquarters, killing 5 U.S. military servicemen.

1996June 25, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: truck bomb exploded outside Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds of others. 13 Saudis and a Lebanese, all alleged members of Islamic militant group Hezbollah, were indicted on charges relating to the attack in June 2001.

1998Aug. 7, Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania:truck bombs exploded almost simultaneously near 2 U.S. embassies, killing 224 (213 in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania) and injuring about 4,500. 12 were Americans.4 men connected with al-Qaeda 2 of whom had received training at al-Qaeda camps inside Afghanistan, were convicted of the killings in May 2001 and later sentenced to life in prison. A federal grand jury had indicted 22 men in connection with the attacks, including Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who remained at large.

2000Oct. 12, Aden, Yemen: U.S. Navy destroyer USS Coleheavily damaged when a small boat loaded with explosives blew up alongside it. 17 sailors killed. Linked to Osama bin Laden, or members of al-Qaeda terrorist network.

2001September 11: hijackers crashed 2 commercial jets into twin towers of World Trade Center; 2 more hijacked jets were crashed into the Pentagon and a field in rural Pa. Total dead and missing numbered 2,9921: 2,749 in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon, 40 in Pa., and 19 hijackers. Islamic al-Qaeda terrorist group blamed.

So as you can see here we have been fighting terrorists for 24 years or so depending on what you consider the start date. Or should I say the terrorists have been fighting us for 24 years, we only finally started fighting back in 2001, when George W. Bush desided to take the fight to them.

Using these numbers from 1983-2001 3,166 Americans have been killed by terrorists. This number may be off slightly as a couple of the dates shown don’t distinguish between American casualties and other casualties. I took the lower number in these cases.

Now I move to the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq war. According to icasualties.org as of this date 3,195 Americans have been killed in Iraq, and 373 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan. This brings the total of Americans killed in the war on terror up to 6,734.

The mainstream media does not see it this way. They consider all of the previous attacks separate incidents, as do probably much of the American public, and the politicians. But these incidents are related, they have always been related, and America is fighting back. We must not stop until all of the radical terrorists are destroyed.

 The lack of action before 2001 probably emboldened the terrorists to the point where they knew they could pull off the September 11th attacks. We must not waiver, we must pull together as a country and show the courage to carry out the mission until it is finished.

It is time win the war on terror, it’s already gone on far too long.