SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: c.hinton who wrote (238644)8/2/2007 11:53:40 PM
From: Nadine Carroll  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
They [critics] also note that over the past two years, July has generally been a light month for American military deaths.

...

While progress in conventional wars can be measured by the amount of enemy territory captured or the number of cities liberated, the American military has had greater difficulty making such assessments in guerrilla conflicts like Iraq.

During the Vietnam War, generals used enemy body counts to trumpet the successes of the military’s jungle offensives. The Pentagon says it abandoned this “metric” after the defeat in Vietnam, but over the past four years in Iraq, military commanders have often used their numbers for insurgents killed when detailing the success of a particular operation.



So the moral is what? It is illegitimate for the American military to use any body counts whatsoever for any purpose, except its own dead, and then only if they imply a negative trend? The surge, which began in earnest in June, brought American soldiers out of bases & into much closer contact with Iraqi civilians. That combined with operation Arrowhead Ripper (again not mentioned), was widely expected to increase American casualties. They decreased instead. Just as fair overview, at least an ATTEMPT to analyse the murky situation, these facts might have been mentioned. Instead its "critics say this" and "critics say that" and we can't analyze and lets drag Vietnam body counts into the picture one more time.
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News