With the media headlining the anti-war camp’s bullet points and trumpeting the fact that 2,000 U.S. troops have now died in Iraq, it is time for some perspective. While we always hope to keep our own casualties to a minimum, war is part of the routine of life, and the reality of war is that casualties are inevitable. The idea that 2,000 fatalities is a high number for a war of any significance is not defensible. Below I have listed the total number of American military fatalities for the two world wars, the Korean war and the Vietnamese war (non-combat deaths are separated out for the former two, because death from disease was so much more common during those conflicts):

• World War I: 116,708 (63,195 from disease and other non-combat causes)
• World War II: 407,316 (115,185 from non-combat)
• Korea: 36,914
• Vietnam: 58,169
• Iraq (2003-2005): 2,001

The fact that so many Americans find our current casualty level to be disturbing is itself an ill omen for the future of U.S. foreign policy. The United States will be fighting in other conflicts before we can win the global war, and we will certainly not win it if our will is this easily shaken. I realize that part of the problem is that the threat of Baathist Iraq has been downplayed, but nevertheless this is a problem.

Kirk H. Sowell, Window on the Arab World