Monday, November 17, 2003
Iraq Deaths Pass Vietnam!
We have now lost more American troops in Iraq than during the first three years of the Vietnam war.
Repeat. We have now lost more American troops in Iraq than during the first three years of the Vietnam war. It's apples and oranges, different kind of war, but the numbers still have a chilling impact.
In '62, '63 and '64 in Vietnam we suffered 392 fatal casualties. Reuters just reported, "the casualty count for Iraq apparently surpassed the Vietnam figure a week ago Sunday (on 11/9/03). An RPG near Baghdad killed the US soldier who became our *393rd fatal casualty since Operation Iraqi Freedom began (3/20/03).
 
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Just a few days ago, the top US soldier in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, angrily dismissed comparisons:
“It is not Vietnam,” Sanchez snapped when asked whether Iraq resembled the early days of that conflict. “And there is no way you can make the comparison.”
Let it sink in: We have now lost more American troops in Iraq than during the first three years of the Vietnam war. Both counts are from the Defense Department's own dates and figures.
Brad Messer— commentary, KTSA.
*In Iraq alone: the overall anti-terrorism military death count, Afghanistan and elsewhere, adds another hundred-plus.
UPI - 11/17/2003 U.S. casualties from Iraq war top 9,000
Boston Globe -
11/14/2003
US
stays blind to Iraqi casualties
Add to that, the 6- to 7-thousand Iraqi civilian deaths during the invasion,
and in excess of 2-thousand more since May 1, when Bush declared an end
to major combat operations.
Air Force Times - 11/11/2003 Sanchez dismisses comparisons to Vietnam