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Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.

-Samuel Smiles

Perspective on 2000 soldiers killed

This week, U.S. forces passed 2000 servicemembers killed in Iraq. Is this a big deal? Well, yes, it certainly is. We mourn every one of these deaths, and it is important not to allow our military forces to be used lightly - 2000 of our servicemembers should never die for unjust causes. But aside from the question of whether our forces should have gone into Iraq, or whether they should still be there, 2000 killed is a remarkable figure. It is an amazingly small number of casualties, which is a credit to the advances in weaponry, tactics, communications, and medical care on the battlefield. It is also a testament to the degree to which normal Iraqis have welcomed U.S. forces - what would the death toll be if we were seen as occupiers by the citizens there?

It is important to keep a proper perspective on the number of deaths sustained in this conflict. I thought it would be educational to compare these 2000 deaths with the number of deaths from past conflicts. Kirk H. Sowell beat me to the punch, so check him out at Publius Pundit.

Posted by Wulf on October 27, 2005 at 08:45 PM

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Comments

I hate it when people, who share a spot on the political spectrum close to mine, go out and make a whole bunch of noise over a number.

"We mourn every one of these deaths"

Exactly, not number 100, 500, 1500, 2000, or ...

It's like KIA #1742 ment nothing!

end venting.

Posted by: geoff at October 28, 2005 6:10 PM

Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.

-Samuel Smiles

Perspective on 2000 soldiers killed

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