January 9, 2008

PAYING NO COST TO BE THE BOSS:

All together now, US troops stand firm (Brian M Downing, 1/10/08, Asia Times)

At the outset of the war in Iraq, if told that an insurgency lasting over four years was in store, most Americans would have predicted serious trouble with cohesion and manpower in the military. Such views would be expected from opponents of the war, yet similar concerns would have come from cautious analysts, in and out of uniform.

Today, when veterans of the Vietnam War discuss the present wars (the subject arises naturally and quickly), many express puzzlement over continued high cohesion among our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps expectations are based more on memories of Vietnam than on a comparative look at cohesion in war.


Except that if you'd been told on 9/12 that liberating 20+ million Iraqis would cost less than 4,000 US servicemen killed and that there'd be no subsequent terrorist attacks on American soil you might even have expected that there'd still be political unity, nevermind military.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 9, 2008 6:25 AM
Comments

Heard a NPR interview today of the author of a current book on the concept of death in American Civil War-era culture.

It was pointed out that the fatalities in the Civil War were statistically proportional to SIX MILLION such casulties in today's population.

Every military loss is a heroic sacrifice and an individual tragedy. Statistically, young men in Iraq are safer than they would be at home in many American cities.

Posted by: Lou Gots at January 9, 2008 5:41 PM

Come on. Why is this hard to figure out? There is no draft now, cowardice is no longer. . .you know the rest of it. Now the all the armed forces are the Marine Corps.

Out of the depths of their past infamy, the peace creeps desparately cling to the monstrous lie that their disgrace had something to do with "Peace."

They know what they did. They know they turned their back on their country; they know that they lied, cheated and connived so that their neighbors would face danger and hardship in their places.

Posted by: Lou Gots at January 9, 2008 6:01 PM
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