Have we suffered huge casualties?
The Ten Costliest Battles of the Civil War
Based on total casualties (killed, wounded, missing, and captured)
http://www.civilwarhome.com/Battles.htm
#1
Battle of Gettysburg
Date: July 1-3, 1863
Location: Pennsylvania
Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee
Union Commander: George G. Meade
Confederate Forces Engaged: 75,000
Union Forces Engaged: 82,289
Winner: Union
Casualties: 51,112 (23,049 Union and 28,063 Confederate)
As I remember we have about 150k troops in Iraq and under 3,000 of them died in 3.5 years. This means a death rate of about 0.66% per year, which makes military work seem a lot less risky than popularly perceived.
That's a pretty impressive monument to the effectiveness of today's military and it's something we should be proud of.
Do you have similar figues for Vietnam? I think the death rate was a lot lower than in the Civil war but still much higher than the Iraq conflict.
You know, I was musing that we defeated the Nazis and that worked out better than the Iraq war but then I realized it may be little different since the Europeans are pretty bitter towards us too.
Maybe that's what happens whenever a nation is rescued.
You realize, this whole Bin Laden thing started when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Saudis asked for US help. Osama, who was not previously resentful of America, offered to help Saudi Arabia defeat Saddam's armies without the help of America. Apparently he wanted to keep the "Two Holy Places" under Saudi control without American involvement.
The Saudis basically laughed him out of the room, considering his proposals absurd. Osama's actual experience in Afghanistan was minimal at best and his swelled ego made him think he could defeat an attacking army. (He actually did defeat the Russian army when it was retreating. They retreated, he counted it as a major victory.)
It seems strange to our minds that he would not be happy to see America help Saudi Arabia kick the Iraqis out of Kuwait. After all, he says he did hate Saddam, and since Americans did it, Saudis didn't die on the battlefield. If I were a Saudi, quite honestly I would consider that the optimal approach!
But Osama wanted glory - and, perhaps, martyrdom. The Saudi Princes had something to live for and so they didn't like his plan at all.
So they let the Americans in, an the Americans did the job and left Osama with a simmering hatred of America. All the rest - the Palastinians, the Iraqi sanctions, etc were just attempts to expand his appeal. His personal grudge is based on that moment.
I'm still trying to figure out why on earth that would make him so angry as to devote his life to Jihad, which really seems like a career option with precious little postiive to recommend it.
Thoughts?
D