Why are soldiers' lives worth more now?

Question

In WWII or Vietnam, the death of a couple of hundred of soldiers in a battle was not considered a major casualty. Usually the reaction is "Damn, that's bad news." Now the death of 2 or 3 soldiers gets nationwide attention.

Why has the value of human life gone up so significantly?

Answer 1

I wouldn't say the value of human life has gone up. I think our awareness has gone up. As a nation more people are educated and are much better informed. In the two wars you mentioned there was not televised information and we did not have the internet at the tips of our fingers to let us keep count of what was happening. I believe the number of casualties was greatly exagerrated in Vietnam. Public was told only a few were dying when the truth was thousands. So, human life was always valued, it's just the public that wasn't fully aware.

Answer 2

From a monetary stand point. The life's of soldiers have always had great value. Nations who spend money to have armies spend a lot of it on training and education its soldiers. A soldier is very expensive. And to loose a soldier was an expense a nation did not want to occur. For example, during the American Revolutionary War, the British would constantly use maneuver to force the Continental Army to surrendur. Why? It was extremely costly for the British to replace a soldier. Having to transport them all the way to the colonies from Europe.

Today our soldiers (US) are asked to be more than just combat troops. They are asked to be diplomats as well. So not only do they fight but they are trained to negotiate. This makes soldiers more valuable in areas of conflict. As a country (US) we are are doing more with few and fewer soldiers because they are so highly trained that a loss of just one is significant. Also, we (US) now have better technology to support our soldiers. For example better equipment increases the survivability of a soldier. Better communications, better offensive weaponry (firearms) and better defensive equipment (flack vests with ceramic inserts) have reduced the loss of soldier on the field of combat.

To not employ what we have learned from previous encounters would be ingornace. And... we (US) advertise the capabilities of the soldier to the enemy to discourage aggresive actions against, in this case, the US.

On an additional note: Protests of the 60's against the policing action of the Vietnam War, efforts by Veterans, have placed pressure on our government to respond by providing the best equipment possible to protect soldiers fighting for the US.

The US has always used its knowledge to avoid war at all costs and when engaged in a war has always used its technology to bring a quick and decisive end to that conflict. Another example of this is when Harry S. Truman i(The Buck Stops Here) ssued the order to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, thus ending WWII. Very few Americans know that had the bombs not been dropped, the planned invasion of the Japanese Islands (Known as Operation Olympic) projected over one million casualties.

Even during The War of Nothern Aggression, The Civil War or The War Between The States, Lincoln's Generals used manuver rather than direct confrontation to resolve our differences. Only when it became apparant that this policy was not capable of resolving our differences, was direct action employed. Please note: this was the bloodiest of wars the US has ever fought. The losses of all wars do not add up to the loss of this single war.

There are many more examples of how we have learned from our history. Lets hope we continue to study current events and document them so that others can determine our mistakes in hopes that they are not repeated.

Answer 3

1. A draftee is simply not as good as a modern US soldier. 2 It is fact that our armies back then were much larger than they are now so one loss today is a higher percentage of the force. 3. If you lose a draftee you have the entire countries population to pick from. In the modern all volunteer force you have to sucker in someone else who can do the fallen soldiers job that's not always so easy as todays soldiers have to be much better educated than there predecessors and take longer to train on all these high tech weapons and gear.

Answer 4

The value of human life has not gone up but, the liberals in this country are using this as a political wedge to try to win more power in the upcoming election.

Very few of our political leaders have experienced personally what its like to have values. They are power and money driven if you look at how they vote it's usually along party lines.When I say values they don't value this country or its legal citizens. If they did we wouldn't be having so many problems with illegal aliens.

They really don't care about those that died on 9/11 or those that are dying daily in this war on terror. It's just a political tool that is useful for them to try and get control of our country.

We have so many educated people with no comon sense who are unable to think for themselves and can be lead so easily down the wrong path it seem unreal. Most have forgotten history or think it can't happen to us.

Our country is on the verge of being in big trouble. Having never suffered the people I am referring to cannot imagine what will happen to us if we don't win this war on terror. In the inital speech after 9/11 President Bush stated this " This War Will Last A Long Time And We Must Not Weaken In Our Resolve To Win It " Almost immediately the left wing started to cave. They have no answers so the attempt is being made to destroy those who do.

My apologies for the length of my answer but it really hit home. I was one of those that came home from Vietnam and was spit on, ask how many babies I had killed and accussed of other terrible things. These questions came mostly from people who new me from school days.

Answer 5

When I was in Nam I was lucky . I flew in a copter every day as a gunner. I very seldom saw the people i shot. I some times we had to take out the bodiebags from a battle. that was the worst thing I had to do.I had nightmares about that. I think to day with instant TV we can see the horrors of war &death.Now we know what they mean when someone says "war is hell".

Answer 6

the region isn't attempting to judge the relative cost of infantrymen' lives or civilian lives. the region confronted on the time develop right into a thanks to minimise US casualties contained in the form of the elect to invade the *** mainland. through bombing Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, thousands of yank lives were kept and contained in the arithmetic of warfare that develop right into a life like calculation in case you've been the U. S. president on the time. Bringing morality into conflict pretty perplexing and hazardous. You shouls also undergo in concepts that WW2 develop right into a finished warfare in which civilians were inevtiably in touch as guns beame mor efficient and technologies meant that they'd properly be extra for the era of better distances than ever till now.

Answer 7

The increasing realization that much of what the post 20th century War was based on dark illusions and fantasy. Its a stark reality that is in all essence a myth created by politicians to gain power and influence.

Answer 8

World War II was viewed as a conflict in which we had no choice. Nazism was such an all-encompassing evil that we simply had to be there. Today, there's a perception - justified or not - that these are wars of politics, and that soldiers are fighting them because politicians chose to put them in harm's way.

Answer 9

The liberals have turned it into a big human interest story.(read sob-fest) Reporters have no buissiness being imbedded with a combat unit. This is one of the problems encountered during VietNam, and it is happening again today. Pathetic, they report what the dumass general populus of America buys, and makes them rich.......At our troops expense.

Answer 10

Because this is the year 2006 and technology has enabled us to deliver news to more people quickly.