So my MIL syas that the 3500 soilders that have died over seas isnt a lot of deaths?

Question

Yeah she said that since 2003 when the war started and 3500 dead american military men and women later isnt a lot compared to how many they lost in the vietnam war....that is still 3500 families that will never get to see their loved ones again....is she right or am i just hearing it wrong?

and my husband, her son.. is in the marines and is over there too....

Answer 1

When it's you or a loved one that's dead, the casualty rate is 100%.

Answer 2

In five years there have been some 3,500 deaths of American soldiers and marines in combat operations between Iraq and Afghanistan.

On 6 June 1944 American casualties at Omaha Beach on D-Day numbered around 3,000, most in the first few hours of the landings,

47,424 service members were killed as a result of combat operations in the Vietnam between 1964 and 1974.

The point I'm trying to make is there is a grave risk of death or injury in serving.in the modern military, however greatly reduced than the risk faced by U.S. Servicemen during World War Two.

Answer 3

You are hearing right and wrong.

If they are referring to USA soldiers maybe if those numbers are not being lowered for the sake of pulic opinion, but who would lie about a thing like that? That would be like lying about unemployment figures.
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Some of those coming back might not be, or maybe they will; "we do have the technology". Artificial anything is better than the real thing. Right?

If the numbers are correct maybe. If it is not your loved one, maybe. If you consider the losses of the combined invasion forces, maybe. If you consider the physical and mental infirmities suffered maybe.


Well if you consider that the USA is really in skrimmages and not a war. Now the people of Iraq and Afganistan are at war.
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USA has superior weapons on foreign soil. They have not fought a war since possibly 1812 where they were evenly matched in weapons. Even the Civil War they had invaded the South, they had it out gunned and out manned. If it were even the South would have won. If the Native Americans had equal or superior weapons, they would have won and the invasion from the USA would have been stopped.

If three adults with sticks walk into a first grade room and claim to have bested 60 in the room and you did not know it was a first grade with 60 unarmed children, you would think them heroic.

Lives are not important as long as profit is made.

Answer 4

We lost over 53,000 during Vietnam. Even in peactime years the death rate has been higher than from Operation Iraqi Freedom. Between 1980 and 1984 there were 9,555 active duty deaths. In the eight years of the previous administration 7,500 died on active duty. As of 10 AM Washington time today, nearly one in five active duty deaths in the Iraqi Theater of Operations is from non-combat causes.
I can even recall a three-month period in peacetime in the 1970s when we lost over 30 Marines to auto accidents in and around Camp Pendleton, California. That's almost a whole platoon.
In the early 1960s we moved the entire First Marine Division by sea from Camp Pendleton to an administrative beach landing in Spain. No combat. Not even "war games". It was Operation Steel Pike One. We had over fifty die from accidents and illness during that exercise.
Your mother-in-law is right about the total casualties. You are also right that families and friends will still have to grieve over the losses.

Answer 5

Thats true compared to other wars 3500 deaths is hardly nothing compared to other wars.

Here are some stats

World War 1
total USA: 115,000 deaths

World War 2
The United States lost 292,000 soldiers.

Korean War
United States death total was 33,000

Vietnam
US: 58,000 dead

1st Gulf War
The DoD reports that U.S. forces suffered 148 battle-related deaths.

War on terrorism
3500 US military deaths


compared to other wars the war on terrorism is a light death rate. Lets put it this way in World war 2 on April 28th, 1944 we lost 700 men to a exercise training for D-day.

Answer 6

In truth you are both right; she is speaking in the sense of total causalities and for the family and friends of the dead it is always one too many. The total killed include many killed in accidents and those deaths have always been around every year in the military; training for war is a dangerous business and deaths happen every year in training, vehicle accidents, deployments on ships and aircraft accidents. Vietnam lasted 10 years by the history books but after 1971 very few Americans were in Vietnam and the causalities were much lighter but even using the 10 year figure the U.S. averaged about 5,000 per year. Your MIL is not being heartless or cruel; she is looking at it from that standpoint. I hope that your husband/her son comes back safely.

Answer 7

It is true that there are fewer deaths currently than in Vietnam no doubt.

Although, the Civil War still tops any war for heart break and death. Brother against brother or even father. Imagine the amount of grief felt from that?

Your mother-in-law may just be trying to distract herself from the fact that her son is in a war full of death and uncertainty by making something else seem worse.

Other reasons could be she may have lost someone during VIetnam that reminds her of her son.

Answer 8

3820 is a more accurate number since the war began. That may seam like a high number, but the total loss as a whole it is very small compared to any past war. By the way, over 10,000 people a year are needlessly killed by drunk drivers stateside. Just to put it into perspective.

Answer 9

Think about this, on the first 3 days of July 1863, 51000 Americans died fighting for an ideal.
2000 Americans died in a training exersize in 1944.
We have lost over 3500 good american troops, trying to ensure our safety.

Answer 10

Well its not a very nice thing to say because even one death is too much, but no, its not a lot when you compare it to previous wars in which tens or hundreds of thousands died or even millions like in the world wars, civil war, Korean war... and on and on.

Answer 11

You are saying some one said somthing they did not say. You are saying 3500 lives is to much. That person is comparing it to other wars. Using historical comparison does not diminish the number of lives lost, it just puts it in persepective.