9/84Infantry platoon leaders in the Marine Corps: 243
2/85Percentage increase since 1980 in U.S. military recruits who hold high school diplomas: 25
2/85Average yearly increase in the number of women in the U.S. military during the first Reagan Administration: 6,615
2/85Number of homosexuals discharged from the U.S. military in 1983: 1,796
Amount the military spent recruiting and training the homosexuals it discharged: $22,500,000
5/85U.S. military aid to El Salvador since 1980, per guerrilla: $52,300
5/85Portion of U.S. military pensioners who work full time: 2/3
Percentage of U.S. military pensioners who are over 65: 15
7/85Number of U.S. military officers who have retired since 1980 and taken jobs with defense contractors: 1,900
10/86Miles of runway the U.S. military has built in Honduras since 1983: 7.3
Number of racquetball courts it has built there: 1
6/87Percentage increase, since 1980, in the number of U.S. military personnel stationed in sub-Saharan Africa: 58
10/88Ratio of G.I. Joe dolls to American G.I.s: 50:1
7/88U.S. military spending during the Reagan administration, per second: $8,607
9/89Percentage of CEOs who say they would “hesitate” to promote a homosexual to an executive position: 66
Percentage of the U.S. Marines discharged last year for homosexuality who were women: 35
Percentage of U.S. Marines last year who were women: 5
1/90Amount of U.S. military aid given to the government of El Salvador each minute during the 1980s: $700
1/90Number of days after a truck bomb killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut that the United States invaded Grenada: 2
11/90Cost of maintaining the U.S. military force in the Persian Gulf region, per day: $32,000,000
Cost of implementing the savings and loan bailout, per day: $148,000,000
11/90Amount the German government has pledged to help pay for U.S. military operations in the Gulf: $1,000,000,000
Amount it has pledged to pay the Soviet Union to resettle Soviet troops stationed in East Germany: $13,000,000,000
11/91Estimated number of “Schwarzkopf filets” served since March at Gallagher’s, the Manhattan steakhouse: 15,000
2/91Percentage of the recruitment ads for the U.S. military broadcast since the Iraqi invasion that include combat scenes: 57
Percentage of the ads broadcast before the invasion that did: 0
3/93Number of the ten largest U.S. military contractors who contributed to Les Aspin’s last congressional campaign: 10
6/93Percentage of Panamanians who say they want U.S. military bases to remain in their country past the year 2000: 80
11/94Percentage of Americans who think U.S. military forces should be used to “reinstate democratically elected leaders”: 37
11/94Percentage who think U.S. military forces should be used to “protect the interests of U.S. corporations”: 53
12/94Chances that a domestic U.S. military base ordered closed in 1988 remains open: 1 in 3
9/95Estimated Pentagon spending on U.S. military base closures since 1988: $14,900,000,000
Total Pentagon savings from base closures since then: $300,000,000
10/96Estimated number of South Koreans officially registered last year as “club women” for U.S. military bases: 18,000
3/96Number of countries to which the U.S. has officially deployed combat ground troops since 1950: 21
Portion of these from which U.S. troops have been withdrawn: 1/2
8/96Number of U.S. military service medals that cannot be purchased without an authorized signature: 1
8/97Number of U.S. military personnel convicted of adultery in the last year: 124
8/97Price of a charcoal-lined, U.S. military-surplus body bag from the Sportsman’s Guide catalogue: $12.88
5/98Ratio of U.S. spending on the Gulf War to estimated cost of maintaining a U.S. military presence in the region since then: 7:5
6/98Year in which General Eisenhower said that NATO “will have failed” if U.S. troops were in Europe a decade later: 1951
5/99Value of the U.S. military equipment earmarked last year to aid Iraqi anti-Hussein groups: $97,000,000
Amount that has been used: 0
7/99Number of years that the U.S. military has been using video games to train soldiers to kill: 10
Factor by which annual U.S. military aid to Colombia has increased since then: 31
8/00Minimum number of Haitian politicians assassinated since 1994’s U.S. military intervention: 8
11/01Number of deserters from the U.S. military last year: 5,320
2/01Estimated amount of Colombian drug money laundered each year via purchases of U.S. goods and services: $3,000,000,000
Amount this represents as a percentage of U.S. military aid pledged to Colombia last year: 578
8/01Number of domestic U.S. military target-practice sites that are closer to populated areas than the one on Vieques: 6
12/02Number of “sub-harm”suicide”gestures” made this year by detainees held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay: 30
4/02Ratio of the President’s proposed increase in U.S. military spending to China’s total military budget in 2000: 1:1
1/03Minimum number of locals hired to act as Arabs heckling U.S. troops during an army war game in California last year: 15
10/03Number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last two years: 354
3/03Number of active-duty members of the U.S. military, per structure it owns, worldwide: 2
3/03Ratio of acreage owned by the U.S. military to the size of North Korea: 1:1
5/03Ratio of the price of a barrel of oil in March to the price of a body bag from the U.S. military’s supplier: 1:1
6/03Amount of new U.S. military aid for Colombia inserted into the Iraq war bill in March: $105,000,000
6/03Amount of new U.S. military aid promised Israel in April to offset the “burdens” of the U.S. war on Iraq: $1,000,000,000
6/03Days that AT&T ceased its TV advertising last March “out of respect for the U.S. military operation in Iraq”: 3
9/03Percentage of Americans in June who favored U.S. military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons: 56
Percentage in July who disapproved of the United States waging preemptive attacks on any country: 58
1/04Percentage increase in U.S. military aid to Uzbekistan since 2001: 1,800
12/04Minimum number of bullets the U.S. military purchased for use this year: 1,500,000,000
2/05Ratio in December of the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to the number from Britain, the second-largest contributor: 16:1
3/05Ratio of the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to the number of Iraqi resisters, as estimated by Iraq’s new director of intelligence: 3:4
7/05Chance that a woman in one of the U.S. military’s three service academies claims to have been sexually harassed: 1 in 2
12/07Percentage of contributions from members of the U.S. military for 2002 campaigns that went to Democrats: 23
Percentage for 2008 campaigns so far: 35
12/07Percentage of Democrats who think that Hillary Clinton is proposing to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq within a year: 76
12/07Number of Christmas trees FedExed last year to U.S. troops: 11,854
3/07Percentage of U.S. military personnel in December who thought more troops should be sent to Iraq: 38
5/07Number of magnetic “Support Our Troops” ribbons sold by the leading manufacturer in 2004: 4,000,000
8/07Average number of liters of bottled water delivered to U.S. troops in Iraq each day: 1,400,000
12/08Date on which Sears began selling an “All American Army” clothing line, with royalties paid to the U.S. military: 9/15/08
5/08Ratio of the total donations Obama received from U.S. military personnel last year to those McCain received: 10:9
7/08Estimated total value of investments in major U.S. military contractors owned by members of Congress: $150,000,000
8/08Number of U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003 after being deemed medically “non-deployable”: 43,000
9/08Portion of U.S. troops in Iraq who are on psychiatric medications: 1/8
Portion of troops in Afghanistan who are: 1/7