U.S. Deaths from Enemy Fire at Highest Level Since Vietnam

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0417-02.htm

Published on Saturday, April 17, 2004 by Knight-Ridder

U.S. Deaths from Enemy Fire at Highest Level Since Vietnam

by Drew Brown

WASHINGTON - With fighting in Iraq now at its worst, the number of U.S. troops killed by enemy fire has reached the highest level since the Vietnam War.

The first part of April has been the bloodiest period so far for U.S. troops in Iraq. There were 87 deaths by hostile fire in the first 15 days of this month, more than in the opening two weeks of the invasion, when 82 Americans were killed in action.

"This has been some pretty intense fighting," said David Segal, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Research on Military Organization. "We're looking at what happened during the major battles of Vietnam."

The last time U.S. troops experienced a two-week loss such as this one in Iraq was October 1971, two years before U.S. ground involvement ended in Vietnam.

There are 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Nearly 700 American troops have died since the beginning of the war. As of Friday, 493 had been killed by hostile fire.


..more..

"Even Vietnam was a more conventional war than this," said Charles Moskos, a sociologist with Northwestern University who specializes in military issues and worked as a correspondent in the Vietnam War.

"Here in Iraq, there are no battle lines," he said. "It's all over."

Another striking difference is age.

The average age of a casualty in Vietnam was 20 years old. The average age of a casualty in Iraq is nearly 27. The youngest American soldier killed in Iraq was 18; the oldest was 55.

...............

they are well trained adults who volunteered for their "day in the sun". Children who were drafted and quickly sent to Vietnam with minimal training compared to highly trained individuals long out of school and ready to rumble. In Vietnam they were up against the third largest conventional army in the world compared to a rag tag civilian group of citizens in Iraq. :shrug: Who knows maybe the "nukem all" crowd will win the day. America just ain't what it used to be.

That is no surprise. However, the highest casualty rates in Iraq pale in comparison to Vietnam where 500-600+ were lost in a single month.

Unfortunately, the casualty counts will skyrocket. Iraq wants its country back from the invaders.

get their wish. Imagine people drafted and 1200 killed in a month.

Think the public will buy that bullshit?

Think there won't be massive Draft-Resistance?

those are intense pictures.
Those guys look so young also.
Are these your own photoraphs?
thanks for sharing them, I wish we could honor these guys by not repeating the same terrible mistakes.

I was looking for photos because of your post. Yes they were young and they were the guys I went to high school with. And now its happening all over again, such heart ache.

it really hurts to look at these, brings tears to my eyes.
So much hurt, so much loss. :-(

,...why on earth in this more evolved world would we ever, EVER want to risk going back to THAT?

Geez,...I just do not understand why war-mongers have any value, whatsoever.

he never had to kill with his bare hands, he never had to watch as a human life ended right before his eyes. He has no soul.

Who want to go and kick ass on the rag heads, the ones who cheer away when the military kills thousands. Some day this War will end like mine. The U S will be run out of there on a rail.

And thousands will have died for NOTHING

— G. W. Bush
(Source: The Guardian)




"I don't know what you're talking about, about
international law. I've got to consult my lawyer."
— G. W. Bush
(Source: The Whitehouse)

Turn around,
go back down,
back the way you came,
Can't you see that flash of fire ten times brighter than the day?
And behold a mighty city broken in the dust again,
Oh God, Pride of Man, broken in the dust again.

Turn around,
go back down,
back the way you came,
Babylon is laid to waste, Egypt's buried in her shame,
The mighty men are all beaten down, their kings are fallen in the ways,
Oh God, Pride of Man, broken in the dust again.

Turn around,
go back down,
back the way you came,
Terror is on every side, lo our leaders are dismayed.
For those who place their faith in fire, their faith in fire shall be
repaid,
Oh God, Pride of Man, broken in the dust again.

Turn around,
go back down,
back the way you came,
And shout a warning unto the nation that the sword of God is raised.
Yes, Babylon, that mighty city, rich in treasures, wide in fame,
Oh God, Pride of Man, broken in the dust again.

The meek shall cause your tower to fall, make of you a pyre of flame,
Oh you who dwell on many waters, rich in treasures, wide in fame.
you bow unto your God of gold, your pride of might shall be a shame,
For only God can lead His people back unto the Earth again.

Oh God, Pride of Man, broken in the dust again.
A Holy mountain be restored, and mercy on that people, that people

Quicksilver Messenger Service Pride Of Man

Good pic of the Citiadel at Hue. The pic of the tunnel rat is somber. 101st?? (It looks like I Corps.)

sorry I didn't post it. http://www.lzsally.com/photos/nam/

thank you

I had a monkey for a while in Phuc Vinh. Looked just like that fellow. All of the other shots could have come out of my photo album

I was not there but my friends, my brothers, my brothers friends, my girlfriends brothers, my boyfriends, my cousins, they were all there and these guys look just like them. Words escape me.

That was my intention Toots.

have died. These are military.

or the 54,050 lifetimes worth of work that it takes to pay the $100,000,000,000 in taxes to pay for it all. Oops, thats just for the first year, we're looking at another $150,000,000,000 minimum over 3 years.

running clock: www.costofwar.com

Sickening, sad,...criminal.

To think that our country spent thirty emotional years attempting to recover from one atrocity,...and has little clue of the train in which tracks this administration is placing our people, again. For what? To do what?

To appease the arrogance of those whose interests and goals exclude even demean the rest of humanity.

kick

thank God he survived three tours of duty with only a broken arm and a messed up back.

They are rather bittersweet pictures and I am always rather startled at how much of a baby he was. 18 the first time he went, 23 when he came back the third time and with a wife and two babies (married and conceived the kids during his forays back to the US).

Sad.....I thought we learned our lesson.....I remember seeing all those Vietnam movies in the 80s (NOT Rambo!) and thinking "boy the US will NEVER make a mistake like THAT again".....guess not.

I doubt if we would be in Iraq. The chickenhawks are in their own little dream world.

under Reagan...

in Lebanon correct? About 250 marines died. I suppose that is not considered "enemy fire". :shrug:

eom

but I don't recall the "Teflon President" taking much of a hit over this, though he did pull the troops out of Lebanon afterward.

Lucky that our soldiers are wearing some kind of special kevlar clothing and other protection all over their whole bodies! Without it the deaths and wounded might be in the 20,000s plus.

http://www.iol.co.za/

On edit: On QL-1, Bernard Fall's Street Without Joy.

The Ho Chi Mihn Trail


Hue and the Perfume River


Perfume River and Hue


Typical FSB west and northwest of Hue. I want to say this is FSB Vandergift.


TDY Hue-Phu Bai. VC inside wire. I hunkered down with a M-16 and a Pentax 35-mm.


DemoTex in 1970.

amazing pictures Demo Tex, Thanks much!

when you were there? I imagine they'd been all over that smile.

The shot of the Ho Chi Minh trail might have had me in it if you could only magnify it a bunch. I think the shot you got was in Laos because I don't remember it being so out in the open where I was. I humped the Laos border three klicks from Khe Sahn for more than a month.