[lbo-talk] Deaths, Injuries, & Anti-War Actions during the Vietnam & Iraq Wars

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>[lbo-talk] Iraqi communists on "resistance"
>Grant Lee grantlee at iinet.net.au
>Sun Feb 15 00:55:54 PST 2004
<snip>
>What is often forgotten is that you have to go a long way back in 
>world history to find the cases of imperial conquest comparable in 
>scale, other than the transfer of a colony from one imperial power 
>to another. Considering that, the rate of US casualties since the 
>fall of Baghdad has actually been quite low.


>[lbo-talk] Iraqi communists on "resistance"
>Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
>Sun Feb 15 09:25:55 PST 2004
<snip>
>Even the present level of casualties

Have you guys actually made historical comparisons of various 
imperialist wars and anti-war movements against them in their first 
years?

The total of 640 fatalities (of which 540 are US fatalities) in 333 
days in *Year One* of the invasion and occupation of Iraq (the 
invasion began on March 20, 2003):

*****   Military Fatalities: By Month:
Period   US   UK   Other*  Total  Avg  Days . . .

Total   540   59     41     640   1.92  333

(Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, February 15, 2004, 
<http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx>)   *****

Look back on the Vietnam War, and analyze the yearly breakdown of 
American deaths:

*****   CACCF [Combat Area Casualties Current File in the Records of 
the Office of the Secretary of Defense] Record Counts by Year of 
Death or Declaration of Death (as of 12/98)

Year of Death or      Number of Records
Declaration of Death

1956-1960                     9
1961                         16
1962                         52
1963                        118
1964                        206
1965                      1,863
1966                      6,143
1967                     11,153
1968                     16,592
1969                     11,616
1970                      6,081
1971                      2,357
1972                        641
1973                        168
1974                        178
1975                        161
1976                         77
1977                         96
1978                        447
1979                        148
1980                         26
1981-1990                    34
1991-1998                    11
Total                    58,193
Record counts provided for informational purposes only, not official statistics

<http://www.archives.gov/research_room/research_topics/vietnam_war_casualty_lists/statistics.html> 
*****

*****   . . . American military forces grew to more than 180,000 by 
the end of 1965; a year later they totaled 385,000.  By early 1968 
more than half a million U.S. troops were deployed in Vietnam, 
engaged in "search-and-destroy" missions against rebel villages and 
installations. . . .

(S/SGT C.E. "Sonnie" Hensley  USAF Retired [Medically], "Vietnam 
War," _Nam Vet_ 2.10, 1 October 1988, 
<http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/military/vietnam/nvet_archive/nvet0210.txt> 
*****

The levels of US troop deployment, deaths, and injuries in Iraq are 
roughly between those in Vietnam in 1964 and 1965.  And yet, American 
opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq has already far 
surpassed the level seen in 1968 during the Vietnam War.
-- 
Yoshie

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