1. War in Vietnam
American losses: 58,193 (+ about 60,000 who committed suicide after the war, if you want to count them as losses, too).
Vietnamese losses: There are no reliable numbers, it seems. But it's safe to say the losses during the conflict with the USA were nearly 2 million (majority being civilians). Not counting the
"Secret War" in Laos, wich happened at the same time and involved 150,000 tons of bombs being thrown over the country by U.S. forces.
2. War in Iraq:
American losses: 4,429 and counting
Iraqi losses: Numbers differ between 100,000 and 200,000 but almost all of them civilians
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Don't get me wrong. I don't want to go all numbers here. Every soldier being sent to death by his government is a tragic loss, that should have never happened in the first place. The suffering is unimaginable for friends and loved ones.
But one thing always disturbed me over the years: There's always and almost only the moaning about the losses on the side of "Western civilization". The suffering on the other side, however, is often spared out or even ignored.
Yes, it's bad that so many American mothers lost their sons but for crying out loud, it's only a fraction of the losses mothers had on the
other side. And their stories are not being told in newspapers, like in the OP, or are subject to TV news. Their post-traumatic syndroms are not the subject of documentaries made my leftwing filmmakers. You actually need stuff like the Top Gear Vietnam Special for being reminded of them, isn't that sad?
When I discussed the topic in the past with Americans, I even came across statements like this after a couple of beers:
"Those Asians breed faster than rabbits and can compensate faster for the losses, than the USA, therefore the losses of the USA count the same."
I think no further comment is needed on that.
I grew up in a country, that lost a quarter of its population to a war and wasn't even allowed to openly moan them, because it used to be the baddy. So I have come to take an extremely critical viewpoint on wars in general and if they're really necessary. I don't believe in a "just war", I think that's a myth. At the most, I believe in an unavoidable war, when the circumstances force a country to take part in a conflict.
Concerning the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, I believe they were avoidable and completely pointless and that the blood of every dead solder is on the hands of the political and military leaders. If I had lost a loved one in such an war, I would be furious beyond imagination and would be getting sick about national pathos and spit on the flag.
But I'm not directly involved and as a neutral bystander, I simply feel sorry for
all the dead soldiers, not only for the American ones. And let's face it: When you look at the numbers and the devastation in the countries, where the wars happened, the USA don't have all that much reason to complain and moan about it.
Sorry for my rant but reading articles like the ones in the OP, I always feel an urge to say this.
