Things Not To Say In The Same Breath

I realize that military history has been largely excised from history curriculum at all levels of education in the United States. Tender hearted people wanted it gone for many reasons (mild to extreme pacifism, desire to teach social history, a desire to remove dates and other "rote" learning etc.), but I think, on the whole, the effect has been deleterious. The simple ignorance of most Americans about the military and military history staggers me.

This was brought to mind by a statement I read in an otherwise sane post over at Donklephant.

There have been some who say that we haven't lost as many soldiers in this war as say, World War II. It implies that the American public is somewhat squeamish about losing so many people.

Maybe he isn't reading the newspapers, or watching the news broadcasts on television, or reading post in the blogosphere, or listening to the radio....maybe he isn't...but if he is he has to be tone deaf not to hear the complaints about the casualties. It started BEFORE the war even began. (Read this article that speculates there could be 30% to 60% casualty rates if the US attempted to assault Baghdad. If you just counted combat troops that would have been 22,000 to 45,000. In case you don't remember, that didn't happen. Oh, and I love this quote from a military history prof., "any death is one too many." I guess he doesn't want to get left out of any academic reindeer games.)

If the word "squeamish" means anything there is no way it cannot be applied to Americans generally speaking (or folks like this specifically.)

And to imply that our attitude today is comparable to the WWII generation is nothing short of nuts. "Oh we are not squeamish, we just want to succeed." This is complete and utter BS. If someone could walk up to them and say "I can guarantee you victory, but it will cost 6,000 dead soldiers over 6 years" they would go ape shit.

I also have a problem with it because it minimizes the enormity of the WWII sacrifice. Even what were considered minor combat operations at the time produced what would be considered today massive casualties. For example, seven days worth of fighting in the Kasserine Pass produced over 6000 casualties. In Italy in 1945 (Jan 6th to May 2nd,) hardly a focal point of the war, the 10th Mountain Division alone had nearly 5000 casualties. Indeed most individual divisions to see combat in WWII suffered more than the entire US Army has in this war.

So don't claim we are the same...it is very obvious we are not.