Over the past five year in Iraq, the death toll of American soldiers has rose to at least 4,000. I find this number chilling due to the fact that our country has lost 4,000 men not for the benefit of our own country, but for the benefit of another country. We have given up the lives of 4,000 in order to bring “peace” to another country. “Peace” that is still non-existent after 5 years. Last year I went to Washington DC on a school trip and at Arlington Nation Cemetery, a memorial has been set up called Faces of the Fallen (picture at top), in which a painting has been done of every single soldier that has lost their life in Iraq. I did not even complete my walk around the entire building because it seems to continue forever. I was shocked to see the ages of these soldiers. So many looked like my age, mainly because they practically were. Many of their pictures were of them in their graduation gowns. These were high school graduates from the class of 2005 and 2006. They were not even legally allowed to drink. They were hardly grown up at all. Most still teenagers. But, they all died for Our Country. I have attached the article, Iraq: US Death Toll in War Hits 4,000 .I found it very interesting and I think you would too. But, the fact that caught my interest was the death tolls of other wars. In Vietnam, the U.S. lost on average about 4,850 soldiers a year from 1963-75. In the Korean War, from 1950-53, the U.S. lost about 12,300 soldiers a year. I have heard these facts for years now and just believed it meant that those wars were much bigger and more violent. But the fact that has been left out for so long is that the War in Iraq has seen many more injuries than past wars. The reason for the increase in injuries and decrease in deaths is due to the advances in medicine that our world has seen since the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s; as well as the enhanced protective gear worn and reinforced armored vehicles. Think about this….there have been 15 soldiers wounded for every fatality in Iraq. In Vietnam only 2.6 soldiers were wounded for every death and in Korea only 2.8. Although it is much better to have our soldiers returned with lost limbs rather than lost lives, I am truly affected by the fact that 60,000 American Soldiers return to the United States and receive a Purple Heart for their duty. If we stay in Iraq, a year from now at least 1,000 more soldiers are estimated to lose their lives and over 15,000 more purple hearts will be awarded.
1 comment:
Thank you for blogging so thoughtfully on this topic. Your description of the wall, the soldiers' portraits, all makes the tragedy so real. We started the semester's blogging with that fnal post from Andrew Olmstead; he believed in what he was doing, in what the US was trying to do in Iraq. But I think you are saying that the cost of this war in lives lost and destroyed has become too great. If that's your view, I agree with you. It's very discouraging to read the latest news from Iraq, since the Shiites and Sunnis seem determined to continue the blood bath and not form a united, democratic country. No amount of American force can make this happen. And military leaders just reported to Bush that the troops are stretched too thin and too battle-weary, with repeated 15-month tours of active duty. The problem is what do we say about these losses if we pull our troops out? Do we have to say that these 4,000+ lives have been wasted and that the mental and physical scars of the wounded were for nothing? Is there some other way to look at the sacrifices as worthwhile even if the war was a mistake?
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