[El Gato]

In a single long battle of WW-II, near the end in fact, we lost 6,821 Killed 19,217 Wounded That battle lasted 36 days. It was for a tiny Island which while important for the bomber crews who were even then pounding Japan, and the fighter pilots sent along to protect the bombers, it really wasn't all that important a place. We would have won the war even if we'd just bombed and by passed it. But we didn't. And we likely saved as many bomber and fighter crewman, as we lost Marines, probably more in fact.

The Marines consider it one of their finest hours. They "persuaded" the Navy to name this little boat after the battle fought there.

USS Iwo Jima.

[jveritas]

I am really shocked at the number of freepers who lost all type of historical perspective. You two have done a great job showing the perspective that many freepers appear to lack. We are very sad for every fallen hero we lose in Iraq, however still our casualties rate is miraculously low compared to other wars with the same length of time. WW II we lost over 400,000 troops, in Vietnam after 4 years of war we lost almost 40,000 troops. This incredibly low casualty rate we have in Iraq is the ultimate testimony to the extreme professionalism and power of the US military the most powerful military in history.

Many people and some on this forum just do not have it in them what does it take to win a war, may be in the future the "Defeatists" should try to amend the Constitution to include the following:

Stop the war and retreat if the number of dead troops exceed 1000, or the war costs more than 50 billions dollars, or if it lasts more than one year, whichever comes first.