Tragic Statistics, Or Lack Thereof
Hey.
I'm still fighting whatever virus it was that my nephew dropped on the house. I thought I was over it and it moved from my throat to my sinuses and continues to stay dug in. So I'm continuing to assault it with waves of acetaminophen and ibuprofen and the occasional sore throat spray (which has been diluted with Listerine for economy's sake). The crud had better be gone by the weekend, I say.
Just watched the National Geographic Special on PBS about the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the British submarine Conqueror in the Falklands War and the attempted underwater search for the ship's remains a couple years ago. I won't get into that story in detail, but the program was worth watching as the veterans of both crews talked about their experiences and reconciled their emotions about the incident.
Which brings me to the current intersection of tragedy and statistics: the business in Iraq. I did some number crunching last week...as of then the reported fatality rate among American servicemen over there is running just above 2 deaths per day. According to my figuring, that's well below the level of Desert Storm (which was about 9 deaths per day), which in turn was just under what it was for Vietnam.
And 2 deaths per day is nowhere near the meatgrinders of America's worst wars--both World Wars and the American Civil War, which were 300 deaths per day or higher!
The American soldier in Iraq is perhaps one of the best protected combat soldiers yet, covered in kevlar body armor and flak jackets. We seem to have greatly improved medical evacuation procedure and technology too, as more and more soldiers are surviving battlefield wounds that would have killed their grandparents. We are doing better by our troops as a nation than we used to. And it seems to be paying off.
But I also look at the intensity gap and find myself thinking "We haven't even gotten serious with this so-called 'War on Terror'." When was the last time you heard of a terror group being liquidated? The troops have taken down individual cells here and there, but what about the bigger threats? The leadership? The hearts-&-minds war?
I look at 2 deaths per day and I can know that the insurgents and Al-Qaida can't win the war militarily, unless they somehow acquire firepower of the likes we haven't seen yet.
But I'm also afraid that they could win the war politically. They still seem to have no problem recruiting men from all over the Arabic-speaking world. They could fix it so the new Iraqi government could just pull the rug out from under us and then where would we be?
And another thing...America has become horribly pain-shy. We don't want to make the kind of emotional and political and economic sacrifices that our previous generations did. Imagine having to face three whole 9/11 disasters every single month! For four or five years at a stretch! That would be unheard of today--but America has already done that TWICE!
If our forefathers could see us today they wouldn't hesitate to call us wusses.
As for my view on Iraq in general...I voted against GW Bush the first time because I suspected he would launch a war against Iraq as revenge for his father's failure to liquidate Saddam Hussein in Desert Storm, and I hate that history proved me right. Now we're stuck occupying a nation that will continue to be chaotic for decades, and will cost this nation more than it could ever hope to get from the efforts. Unfortunately, I think we have to stay there and see this through. And pay the prices. And try to heal the damage to our national goodwill with the rest of the planet.
I'm still fighting whatever virus it was that my nephew dropped on the house. I thought I was over it and it moved from my throat to my sinuses and continues to stay dug in. So I'm continuing to assault it with waves of acetaminophen and ibuprofen and the occasional sore throat spray (which has been diluted with Listerine for economy's sake). The crud had better be gone by the weekend, I say.
Just watched the National Geographic Special on PBS about the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the British submarine Conqueror in the Falklands War and the attempted underwater search for the ship's remains a couple years ago. I won't get into that story in detail, but the program was worth watching as the veterans of both crews talked about their experiences and reconciled their emotions about the incident.
Which brings me to the current intersection of tragedy and statistics: the business in Iraq. I did some number crunching last week...as of then the reported fatality rate among American servicemen over there is running just above 2 deaths per day. According to my figuring, that's well below the level of Desert Storm (which was about 9 deaths per day), which in turn was just under what it was for Vietnam.
And 2 deaths per day is nowhere near the meatgrinders of America's worst wars--both World Wars and the American Civil War, which were 300 deaths per day or higher!
The American soldier in Iraq is perhaps one of the best protected combat soldiers yet, covered in kevlar body armor and flak jackets. We seem to have greatly improved medical evacuation procedure and technology too, as more and more soldiers are surviving battlefield wounds that would have killed their grandparents. We are doing better by our troops as a nation than we used to. And it seems to be paying off.
But I also look at the intensity gap and find myself thinking "We haven't even gotten serious with this so-called 'War on Terror'." When was the last time you heard of a terror group being liquidated? The troops have taken down individual cells here and there, but what about the bigger threats? The leadership? The hearts-&-minds war?
I look at 2 deaths per day and I can know that the insurgents and Al-Qaida can't win the war militarily, unless they somehow acquire firepower of the likes we haven't seen yet.
But I'm also afraid that they could win the war politically. They still seem to have no problem recruiting men from all over the Arabic-speaking world. They could fix it so the new Iraqi government could just pull the rug out from under us and then where would we be?
And another thing...America has become horribly pain-shy. We don't want to make the kind of emotional and political and economic sacrifices that our previous generations did. Imagine having to face three whole 9/11 disasters every single month! For four or five years at a stretch! That would be unheard of today--but America has already done that TWICE!
If our forefathers could see us today they wouldn't hesitate to call us wusses.
As for my view on Iraq in general...I voted against GW Bush the first time because I suspected he would launch a war against Iraq as revenge for his father's failure to liquidate Saddam Hussein in Desert Storm, and I hate that history proved me right. Now we're stuck occupying a nation that will continue to be chaotic for decades, and will cost this nation more than it could ever hope to get from the efforts. Unfortunately, I think we have to stay there and see this through. And pay the prices. And try to heal the damage to our national goodwill with the rest of the planet.