Another comparison - we fought in WWII from December 1941 to August 1945, a total of 45 months. We lost (IIRC) over 444,000 soldiers killed in action, almost 10,000 per month. We have lost 13 in just over a month in the current war.
Our society wasn’t complaining about casualties or questioning about exit strategies in Dec 1941. Our strategy was win the war, no matter the cost or how long it took. My problem with getting into these wars is that we lack the will as a society to do what we have to do to win. If we aren’t going to do what is necessary, we shouldn’t get involved to begin with. The enemy we fight is prepared to spend generations fighting and to lose millions of casualties. It’s hard to defeat an enemy when we are displaying such a lack of will
“My problem with getting into these wars is that we lack the will as a society to do what we have to do to win. If we aren’t going to do what is necessary, we shouldn’t get involved to begin with.”
What you say is, IMO, beyond dispute. The reason for the societal disconnect is that we are fighting wars across the globe that aren’t directly connected to national survival. Our constitutional form requires consent, and every administration since 1945 has sought ways around asking for that consent.
Then you have the institutional problem involved in a return to conditional war: a president asking for a “declaration” pretty much has a bank-check for the duration, and Congress must fund it. Anybody see the egos in Congress giving a formal Declaration these days?
So every war we are treated to a president who refuses to ask permission under The War Powers Act, and a Congress that is secretly glad he didn’t but mouths off all the same.
Rinse & repeat.
780 guys killed at a D-day REHEARSAL in England in April 1944.
Imagine if that happened now!
All this bombing bullshit is simple evasion of what is required to conquer another people and impose your will on them.
“ Our society wasn’t complaining about casualties or questioning about exit strategies in Dec 1941.”
That was because of the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor. Now we did ye sneak attack and a wave of assassinations including the Shia pope.
That is why people today aren’t as enthused about the war. And it’s not reported much, but s as WWII ground on, America was becoming very fatigued by the human toll. War bond drives were getting difficult. Desertions in the ETO where it was more possible were becoming more widespread. We executed a Guy to try to send a message. There’s a book someone wrote about it. That areas of France were filled with malingerers and deserters who navigated the confusion by being with “some other unit”, etc.
Hard to get away with that in the Pacific. The bomb was very welcome for many reasons.