Next, concerning the reason we went to war or the numbers you have mentioned. I believe you are way off. Concerning Vietnam, roughly 60,000 Americans lost their lives between 1945 and 1975 in Vietnam. A staggering number but not quite "millions" as was expressed in the above post.
Concerning the Iraq War. It is impossible to determine how many Iraqi civilians have lost their lives. Again, however, I don't believe it's the "millions" as expressed above. Depending on which figure you want to use and which side of the fence you lean on can produce different numbers. However, one set of numbers appears to be the most accurate in my view. 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been inadvertantly killed at the hands of American and Allied Forces. During Saddam Hussein's reign, it has been estimated that he killed approximately 600,000 of his own civilians. Regardless of why we went to war, if those figures are accurate then our presence there, though costly in the lives of Iraqi civilians, has saved countless lives over the long run.
thereligionofpeace.com makes the point:
Iraqi civilians killed (all deliberately) in 2006 by the Iraqi resistance: 16,791.
Iraqi civilians killed (all accidentally) in 2006 by Americans: 225.
I will add this note as a former military person. The majority of people in 2005 with whom I spoke too, believed (under their breath as we were not really allowed to express "opinions" at that time) we should have been focusing on Afghanistan and Al Quaeda rather than Iraq. But, ciscop's correct in that the majority of those in the military do what we're told to do.
One final point I would like to make. Ask yourself this. If you were an Iraqi civilian, would you rather live in an Iraq under Saddam Hussein and his dictatorship or would you rather be living in Iraq today as a democracy? I certainly know which I would prefer...
Thanks again Scepcop for removing the video.Statistics: Posted by ProfWag — 21 Apr 2010, 21:14
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