[Atlantic Friend]

The total number of US losses in Iraq is around 700. The total number of US losses in WW2 was 300,000 - and that's just for the European theater of operation. In WW2, the US army could have 700 KIA a DAY, not a YEAR.

While the US soldier is clearly every bit as good now as he was then, it certainly is the general public's acceptance of war casualties that's changed.

Plus, I don't think it does much good to anyone that so many people think US soldiers are invincible, that US war matériel just can't be destroyed, and that the whole Iraqi operation would be a walk in the park. The US soldiers are not demigods, they are human beings, and that's what makes them heroes.

While it is entirely normal that people are supportive and confident, a war is a place where planes and tanks are destroyed, and where soldiers die fiery deaths. Overconfidence is as great a danger for civilians as it is for soldiers, because it probably makes each casualty all the more insufferable. Hence reactions such as this one, probably.


This, and a little too optimistic view of the war in Iraq during its opening stages is probably the cause of such reactions.

[Piranha]

Beautifully put, AF. I hope you repost this on other threads, as applicable.

[antaresequity]

the general publics acceptance of war casualties that's changed.

As callous as this may sound, I think the American public puts far to much emphasis on human death. People die. Everyone dies. Its just a matter of when and where. Death is guaranteed.

This country has lost its stomach for real death, yet seems to possess an insatiable appetite for death in fantasy. As a culture we cannot get enough of it in print, film, and music.

We appear to have become a culture that prefers fantasy at the expense of reality. It is as if we are culture in denial.

This is now the alternative reality...the parallel universe we live in.

Hollywood stars and producers peddle a never ending stream of death and misery, yet these same peddlers are the most vociferous opponents to the war; real death.

The contemptuous comments of Sgt Barnes in the Oliver Stones 'Platoon' sums it up with delicious irony: "Death? What do you guys know about it?".

Look around you...look at the youth of this country...our future leaders. The only thing they know of death is that its not real; its a fantasy.

When I look at WWII and its enormous cost in terms of human life, I can reconcile the tragedy knowing that death is part of life.

We as a nation have gone soft, and have forgotten that sometimes people have to die, so that others may live, and though tragic as it is, its normal.