Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Operations are killing twice as many civilians as militants are, statistics show

cthulu23 · 09-25-2004, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerclown

Please.

War Casualties
First World War (1914-18): 15,000,000
Russian Civil War (1917-22): 9,000,000
Second World War (1937-45): 55,000,000
Korean War (1950-53): 2,800,000
Second Indochina War, aka Vietnam (1960-75): 3,500,000 (36,725 civilians assassinated by VC/NVA, 1957-72)
Cambodia, Khmer Rouge (1975-1978): 1,650,000
Afghanistan, Soviets vs. Mujahideen (1979-2001): 1,800,000
Iran-Iraq War (1980-88): 1,000,000
Etc..etc..etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...etc...

This isn't a video game, THIS IS WAR.
You want war stats, knock yourself out. The Americans could turn the entire country into a flat sheet of glass in 72 hours. Billions have been spent developing precision weapons to avoid killing civilians. Militarily speaking, this conflict is by far the most humane of any war ever waged.

I see no point in this thread, other than to incite.

I don't know if you bothered to read the original post in it's entirety, but it centers on the difficulty of winning the conflict while simultaneously capturing the hearts and minds of Iraqis. Sure, we could level the country but that doesn't quite jibe with our stated goal of bringing democracy to the people, does it? The question is how to win the tactical war without losing the people. The chance of us figuring out this conumdrum are greatly reduced if we can't speak openly about the issues without being accused of inciting...something. What was this thread supposed to be inciting anyway?

BTW, the wars that you cite as evidence of the "humanity" of the Iraq conflict were not exactly low key affairs. In fact, they were some of the most bloody conflicts in history. How about we compare the Iraq invasion with the invasion of Grenada or Panama? I know that that doesn't really mean anything, but neither does comparing the Iraq conflict with World War II.