My fellow Americans

Sometimes, I wonder how the current Americans could have lived through World War II. While I do realize that the current conflict in Iraq has gone on longer than World War II, the casualties have been far fewer in this war, than in any one year during World War II. In fact, the total casualties in Iraq have been less than many of the battles in World War II, particularly in the Pacific theater, where the fighting was especially vicious, and in many cases where the enemy fought to their death rather than surrender. At Iwo Jima, in 36 days of fighting, the US casualty numbers were: 25,851 (one in three American servicemen were casualties), of that number, 6,825 were dead. Virtually all 22,000 Japanese soldiers died. On Okinawa, US casualties were: 30,777, of which 7,229 were dead. Neither of these battle figures include the toll on the Navy. Over 130,000 Japanese soldiers were killed, and only slightly over 10,000 were taken prisoner. At the Battle of the Bulge, there were 81,000 US casualties, of which 19,000 were deaths.
In contrast, as of January 14, 2007 the numbers in Iraq are as follows: 25,854 total casualties, including 3020 deaths.
I am not arguing that the casualties in the current conflict are something to be ignored, or acceptable in any sense of the word. What I would argue on the other hand, is that the current enemy, radical Islam, is every bit as dangerous and a threat to the United States as the fascism in Europe or the Imperial intentions of Japan in the 1930s and 40s. As a matter of fact, I don't recall reading any ultimatums that Germany or Japan issued to the United States that basically said, "convert to our way of thinking or we will destroy you" the way bin Laden has. These US casualties have not been purposeless or in vain. They have been to defend our country, and our way of life. All of these people have been volunteers who have courageously stepped up, so that the Liberals and the antiwar, anti-military fanatics still have the freedom to spit out their hatred of George Bush, and show their complete lack of understanding as to why Al Qaeda and all the other radical Muslim sects hate us. What does surprise me, is that the public in general, is now according to the polls, something like 70% against finishing the job in Iraq. At least these casualties are being heroically offered to defend the United States. If the these people (collectively, liberals, antiwar, anti-military, mainstream media) wish to seriously complain about needless deaths, maybe they ought to focus their attention on traffic safety in United States, where 43,443 people died, and 2.68 million were injured, on the roads in the United States in the year 2005.
I would like to sincerely thank the following websites, for the statistics cited in this entry:

http://newsbusters.org/node/8482
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
http://www.battleofthebulge.org/main.html
http://www.iwojima.com/battle/battled.htm
http://www.merchant-marine.com/okinawa.htm


James A.