Today's News: The Figures Are In. The USA Wins.

[infrogmation]

Two items from today's news:

From CNN: "The death toll from the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center has been revised down to 3,050, the New York Office of Emergency Management said Saturday. "
Source(at bottom of page)

From CommonDreams: "More than 3,500 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan by U.S. bombs, according to a study to be released December 10 by Marc W. Herold, Professor of Economics, International Relations, and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire. "
Source

So, apparently, we've killed more innocent civilians in a nation with less than 1/10th the population of the USA than the terrorists killed on 11 September.

Do we get to declare victory now?

Will I be forgiven if I decline to wave a flag and shout "USA! USA!" in celebration of this news?

Comments

Irrelevant.

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

War isn't waged to achieve casualty parity.

If you can achieve your objectives by inflicting 1/10th of the casualties you suffered on your enemies, then that's what you do. If you can only achieve your objectives by inflicting 100 times the casualties you suffered on your enemy, then that's what you do.

Re: Irrelevant.

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

From a purely tactical point of view, fair enough.

Except for that those thousands of civilians supposedly weren't in the category of "enemies".

Re: Irrelevant.

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty certain our own troops aren't considered enemies either, yet a couple of them got hit too. Last I heard, we'd killed three times as many of our own troops as the enemy had. These things happen in war. It really doesn't have that much to do with the outcome of the war, or whether or not it's worth waging in the first place.

Yeah.

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

Tell that to the Dresdnern.

Re: Yeah.

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

Sure. If you think it's not the case, tell me what kind of casualty parity was being reached there.

Re: Irrelevant.

[six2.livejournal.com]

Irrelevant perhaps to those already with open eyes and ears, but maybe brings a little perspective that I can bring back to non-infojunkies types.