David McCandless, a visual data journalist, provides the breakdown of soldier casualties in Afghanistan in The Guardian.
Canadians have suffered a disproportionately high number. In fact more than any other NATO party, or even the Afghan army:
Canadian forces are actually suffering the most. They’re mostly deployed in the southern Kandahar, which adjoins the province of Helmand, where the bulk of British troops are posted. Both are Taliban strongholds.
And, if wounded soldiers are factored in, a shocking picture emerges.
Info is beautiful 07 Photograph: Public Domain
This is probably why the Canadian government is not releasing its figures for wounded soldiers (It took a leak to the Canadian Press news agency to get the figures). (Important: these figures include all wounded, not just seriously wounded. The Canadian figures for 2009 are estimates. As ever you can check my figures and sources in this Google spreadsheet.)
All armies in Afghanistan
How do all these figures stack up compared to the other coalition forces taking part in NATO operations in Afghanistan?
Info is beautiful 08 Photograph: Public Domain
In a barely recorded statistic, the Afghan army and police force has suffered a shocking 4800 fatalities since 2006.
Looking at these figures, I became curious about the private security contractors active in Afghanistan.
Does this mean Canadian troops are being exposed to more dangerous situations, or that Canadian troops are dying more often?
These numbers mean nothing without context. Who’s doing the lionshare of the work? Who’s in the more hostile regions? Who’s undertaking the most dangerous work?
How are these fatalities/casualties coming about? Friendly fire, enemy combatants, road-side bombs?