Four thousand American military have died so far in Iraq. To put that in perspective, we lost 618,000 in the U.S. Civil War, 117,000 in World War I, 417,000 in World War II, 36,500 in the Korean War (of which about 5000 died while in captivity of North Korea as POWs - remember this as the government begins reapproachment) and 50,000 in the Vietnam War. While we remember those wars as having purposes, Korea and Vietnam were conducted due to treaty obligations, and WWI as a perceived duty to help our progenitors. I don't know what to make of this except that historically 4000 isn't yet in the big leagues.Edit 3/25: According to the NYTimes today, Wall Street "casualties" include about 34,000 layoffs from big brokerage firms. This use of "casualty" seems pretty trivial when compared to the usage in the paragraph above.
Senator Obama's preacher, Jeremiah Wright, spewed a bit of hate from the pulpit. Raised as a white protestant evangelical, I've heard a whole lot of hate spewed from the pulpit as well. That's mostly what religion does - promotes hate.
The market seems to be behaving rationally again. That makes me a little nervous. By "rationally" I mean it ponderously moves in the direction that makes sense given the current economic news. That is too good to last. And what's that with a deal being made to buy Bear Stearns, then the buyer quintupling the bid? I heard an analysis on public radio that makes it sound a bit less than stupid, but still...
Can't wait fot the next Indiana Jones movie. One of the blogs said it would only appeal to those who liked the first three. I liked the first three!
This is E, relaxing buck naked in an L.A. motel room.
posted by D. Brian Nelson at 7:40 PM
5 Comments:
I doubt it's any consolation to the families and friends of Iraq war casualties that, in terms of the number of U.S. dead, the war in Iraq is dwarfed by the Civil War, WWs 1 & 2, Korea and Viet Nam.
Besides, it's nearly impossible to compare these statistics given the major differences in medical treatment, battle strategies, weapons technologies, and so much more that have taken place over the years.
The Civil War, for instance, had nearly twice the number of men die from disease than they did from battle wounds. I'm sure men also died from disease in subsequent wars but I'm also confident that number has drastically declined as the time-line moves closer and closer to the present.
While it was an atrocity that so many men died while in North Korean POW camps, was it any less an atrocity that approx. 5 times as many died while in Confederate POW camps?
War itself is an atrocity. Just because casualty statistics in a given war still haven't reached the "big leagues" doesn't mean we shouldn't question and, if we decide to, object to this war just as vehemently as we might if the number of dead were many times what it currently is tallied at.
Let's have lots more wars that only kill 4,000 soldiers. In fact, let's kick off a new one every month. That would be awesome. Let's also bring back the draft, except this time, we'll start by drafting middle-aged men. Nobody will notice a few thousand of those missing each month.
And I would wager that the civilian dead in this occupation (something in the vicinity of a million) - not to mention the millions of refugees - dwarfs anything from the Civil War (though probably not the others).
Also - except perhaps towards the U.S. government itself - I have yet to hear anything Wright has said that I would consider "hate." Rage, yes, but after hearing so many black people tell me matter-of-factly about just having to get used to getting casually frisked from time to time just for being black (i.e., "suspicious," in police parlance), or pulled over for driving a nice car; after learning of our country's long, ignominious history of smallpox-infested blankets and syphilis experiments; and after seeing how casually non-white countries are treated by our government as nuisances standing between us and their resources, I'm not so quick to dismiss that rage at centuries of racial injustice - which has hardly come to an end - out of hand.
Anonymous,
If you spend any time in airports, you'll see a huge number of middle-aged men wearing uniforms on their way to and from Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of them (and most of the men my own age that I know) have done their time during Vietnam War as well.
While I respect your anonymous outrage, middle-aged men have, for the most part, done their time, and many continue to answer the call.
I am not supporter of this or any vague war, but I'm also a pragmatist and have read enough history to know they're never going to disappear. While I am happy none of my children followed in my footsteps and enlisted, I would certainly have supported them if they'd decided differently.
Posting your sarcasm here is just fine. But it would probably be good if it were directed at something I actually said, rather than at something you thought I'd said by skimming.
Feel free to respond to this comment with all the sarcasm you can muster.
-Don
First five years of Clinton's presidency, over 5000 soldiers died.
Last five years of Bush's presidency, about 4000.
Not really making a value judgement, just pointing out...
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