A few raw statistics, to add fuel to whatever flames want it:
Total number of US "named dead" (confirmed dead): 977
Total number reported dead, pending family notification: 35
Total number of wounded (combat and non-combat): 6937
Total number of non-combat injury evacuations: 4416
Total number of disease evacuations: 7347
Totalled up, these numbers represent aproximately 19,700 active duty soldiers removed from the theatre of operations in iraq over a span of 534 days... an average of just under 37 per day, with around 15/day from injuries sustained as a result of hostile/non-hostile fire.
By comparison, the average death rate across the vietnam campaign is 2/day now vs. 26/day in vietnam (1/13th fatality rate). However, it's good to point out that today's combattant has substantially improved armor which yeilds a much higher survival rate for injuries that, in the vietnam era, would most certainly have been fatal. It's therefore more useful to compare casualties vs casualties: 15/day vs. 94.5/day (Vietnam servicemen suffering 6.3x times the casualties of those in iraq).
The charts show a potential trend upwards in injuries. If, for instance, september yeilds similar numbers to august, casualties rates would increase to an average of over 16/day, bringing the differential in casualties up to about 1/5.8 that of vietnam. Obviously, such trends of violence escalation would quickly bring the rates of those serving in iraq into parity, due to the comparitive shortness of the Iraq conflict vs. that of Vietnam.
Sources:
Global Security's U.S. Casualties in Iraq statistics
Iraq Coalition Casualty Count
WHS OSD Vietnam Casualty Summary