Bogged-down quagmire

Via Drudge, I saw this Washington Post piece on anti-war protestors' preparations for the 2,000th US military death in Iraq. At this point, 1,996 US soldiers have lost their lives in operations in Iraq.

As is well-known, opponents of this war like to make comparisons to Vietnam; just like that conflict, they claim, we are bogged down against an elusive foe in a protracted war we cannot win.

Out of curiosity, I googled "vietnam casualties year by year", and one of the search results was this page, which breaks down US casualties in Vietnam year-by-year. When you view this chart, remember that Johnson sent the first combat troops to Vietnam in March of 1965. In that year alone, 1,863 US soldiers were killed. Casualties for the next four years were 6,144, 11,153, 16,589, and 11,614, respectively.

Now, we've been in Iraq for two and a half years, meaning we're losing about 800 lives per year. While we cannot and must not shrug at that number -- any death in combat is a terrible thing -- we also have to have a bit of perspective:

This ain't Vietnam.

Again, make sure you're reading Bill Roggio.