Category Archives: Iraq

Know your enemy: a brief history of Vietnam

Vietnam is not our enemy today, but it was for almost twenty years (1955 – 1973)—a war that the U.S. started with the false claim that our Navy ships had been attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 4, 1964.

The truth: “On August 2, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats, mistaking the Maddox for a South Vietnamese vessel, launched a torpedo and machine gun attack on it. Responding immediately to the attack, the Maddox, with the help of air support from the nearby carrier Ticonderoga, destroyed one of the attacking boats and damaged the other two. … Regarding claims that the attacks on the US were unprovoked, veterans of US Navy SEAL teams say that US-trained South Vietnamese commandos were active in the area on the days of the attacks. … There were no U.S. casualties’, but three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed and six wounded.” Source: What was the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

“In early 1964, South Vietnam began conducting a covert series of U.S.-backed commando attacks and intelligence-gathering missions along the North Vietnamese coast. Codenamed Operations Plan (OPLAN) 34A, the activities were conceived and overseen by the Department of Defense, with the support of the Central Intelligence Agency, and carried out by the South Vietnamese Navy.

“The United States was playing a dangerous game. The South Vietnamese—conducted OPLAN 34A raids and the U.S. Navy’s Desoto patrols could be perceived as collaborative efforts against North Vietnamese targets.” Source: U.S. Naval Institute

How does Vietnam compare to Afghanistan and Iraq? You will discover that Vietnam also has a long history of war and rebellion.

In 111 BC, the Nam Viet Kingdom is annexed by the Han Dynasty and becomes part of China. During the next thousand years, China rules over Vietnam and there are many rebellions that are crushed.

In 939 AD, Ngo Quyen frees Vietnam (Dai Co Viet) by defeating China’s army at the Bach Dang River.

In 1010, The Ly Dynasty defeats attacks from China, in addition to the Khmer and Cham empires and then conquers the Cham destroying their culture.

In 1288 after fighting off thirty years of invasions by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China, the Mongols are defeated by Tran Hung Dao again at the Back Dang River. Kublai Khan (1215 – died 1294) conquered China and then ruled the Yuan or Mongol dynasty.

In 1407, the Ming Dynasty sends an army into Vietnam, and in 1428, China is defeated.

In 1788, China’s Qing dynasty invades again and is also defeated.

In 1858, the French Navy attacks Da Nang and South Vietnam becomes a French Colony while the north and center of Vietnam becomes a French protectorate.

Japan invades Vietnam in 1940, and after World War II, the French reoccupy South Vietnam followed by a war between France and the Viet Minh as the Vietnamese once again fight to regain independence from a foreign power just as they have done against the Chinese, the Mongols and the French. In fact, the Vietnamese defeated the Mongols where the tribes in Afghanistan and Iraq failed.

The bulk of the French army is defeated at Dien Bien Phu; the French leave in 1955, and are soon replaced by the (stupid) United States.

The United States—it is obvious that the US did not know their enemy—supports Ngo Dinh Diem who makes himself president of the so-called Republic of South Vietnam with support from the U.S. military. In 1963, Diem is assassinated in a US-initiated coup.

Defeated in its objective to end Communism in Vietnam, the U.S. leaves in 1975 and today, Vietnam is still ruled by a Communist government.

What I learned from this series of posts is that when attacked, citizens in other countries and cultures may want to decide their own political future and fight for that right. If the US had sought the advice of Sun Tzu, I’m sure he would have warned against wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam by just studying the history of these cultures

What do you think?

Return to or start with Know your enemy: A brief history or Iraq and/or A brief history or Afghanistan

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Know your enemy: a brief history or Iraq

Sun Tzu wrote that “not only must we have worthy goals to be successful, but our methods, the last of his five factors, must be honorable as well. … Sun Tzu teaches that leaders must be honest.” Source: Frugal Marketing.com

How honest was America’s political leaders when it came to starting the war in Iraq?

“Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the Bush White House’s case on Iraq’s alleged biological-and chemical-weapon stockpile in a dramatic Feb. 5, 2003, speech to the U.N. Security Council.” Source: USA Today.com

More than a decade after President George W. Bush started the war in Iraq, those weapons of mass destruction have not been found and no one is looking for them because they didn’t exist.

Instead of going into detail starting with 3500 BC when Mesopotamia became the world’s first known civilization in South Eastern Iraq, I want to focus on several elements that are eerily similar to Afghanistan.

332 BC: Alexander the Great conquers the Persians and the area we know of as Iraq becomes part of his empire.

In 633 AD, Muslims conquer the region that is Iraq today.

Mongol invaders led by the grandson of Genghis Khan destroy the Muslim Arab Empire that includes Iraq in 1258 AD.

The British—militarily and politically—become involved in the region in the 19th century to protect their trade routes with India and the East. In 1917, British troops occupy Baghdad and in 1920, the League of Nations gives Great Britain a mandate to rule over Mesopotamia. The British then set up King Faisal the 1st as the monarch of Iraq.

Then in 1932, Iraq becomes Independent and during World War II—wanting to get rid of British influence in the region—allies with Germany, Italy and Japan.

Great Britain defeats Iraq in 1941. In 1945, Iraq helps form the Arab League that declares war on the newly formed nation of Israel.

King Faisal the 2nd becomes Iraq’s leader in 1953. But in 1958, there is a military coup and the monarchy is destroyed. In 1979, Saddam Hussein becomes the Iraqi President and in 1980, Iraq invades Iran starting the Iran-Iraq war. In 1990, Iraq invades Kuwait. In 1991, a coalition of 39 countries starts the First Persian Gulf War and liberates Kuwait. Iraq accepts a ceasefire. Source: Dates and Events.org: Iraq-Timeline

In July 2012, Con Coughlin writing for the Uk’s Telegraph reported, “The modern-day states of Iraq and Syria once formed the ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia. They share the same tribal culture, heritage and a lengthy border.”

What does that tribal culture look like?

The Council on Foreign Relations says, “There is … a consensus among experts that tribal traditions remain culturally important to many Iraqis. … Tribes are regional power-holders, and tribal sheiks are often respected members of Iraqi communities.

“Among Iraq’s Shiite majority, [Islamic} religious leaders appear to be a more potent political force, … That said, religious leaders … appear to derive some of their strength from tribal connections. …

“Some tribes pre-date Mohammed, the prophet of Islam … For centuries, the tribes were the primary form of social organization through much of the region. While their influence has diminished through the years, the Ottoman Turks, the British, the British-backed monarchy, and the Baathists all sought their cooperation.”

Do you see the similarities between Iraq and Afghanistan? Both regions were conquered by Alexander the Great and ruled over by the Greeks. Both have tribal influences that have been around for centuries.

The Islamic religion swept over both regions about the same time. The Mongols rolled over both regions. Then the British arrived followed by the American military.

You may have noticed that there has been no mention of Russia yet, but starting July of 1979, Saddam Hussein “used the Soviets to support his program of military expansion and to strengthen his regime. Baghdad acquired arms and advisors from the USSR; the KGB and East German Stasi also trained the Baathist secret police apparatus.”  After Saddam argued with the Soviets, France became Iraq’s second biggest source of military aid after the USSR as Iraq’s dictator-for-life played the West off against the Communists in Russia. Source: History in Focus: The Cold War

Remember how the Mujahedeen were supported by the United States and some of her allies as they fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Later, the same Islamic, Mujahedeen warriors that the US trained and supplied with weapons become the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Do you think it is possible to build a democratic nation in Iraq where all of the different religious, political and tribal factions will learn to cooperate sort of like the very honest and moral [tongue-in-cheek] Republican and Democratic Parties do in the United States?

Continued on August 16, 2013 in A brief history of Vietnam or start with Know your enemy: a brief history or Afghanistan

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Wounded Warriors Returning from the Abyss

Dawn Halfaker graduated from West Point as a 1st lieutenant and led a platoon in Iraq in 2004. A few weeks into her deployment, her platoon was ambushed, she was hit and when she woke up in the hospital days later, her right arm was gone.

With her military career over, she decided to help fellow wounded veterans. The Huffington Post interviewed Halfaker, and asked, “What happened on the day you got wounded?”

Halfaker replied, “It was a routine, 3-hour patrol mission looking for enemy activity on a relatively quiet night until, after about two and a half hours, we drove right into an ambush. I was in the first vehicle of the convoy, and one of the rocket-propelled grenades hit me and one of my squad leaders, severely injuring both of us.”

She launched Halfaker and Associates, and today it is an award winning professional services and technology solutions firm. She also is involved as the president of the Wounded Warrior Project that has a vision “to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation’s history.”

Serving her country, she lost an arm and was awarded a Bronze Star Medal along with a Purple Heart for her wounds in combat. But her success since that fateful day doesn’t mean she doesn’t have days where she doesn’t hate her life. In 2005, in a New York Times interview, she said, “Some days when I’m holding a cup of coffee, my ID, carrying a bag, trying to open the door at work, I spill coffee on myself. Those are the days I say, ‘I hate my life.’ I cry and think, Why do I have to be this way?”

But no matter how she feels on down days, she always rebounds and wonders how her life turned out so great.

If we learn anything from this retired Army captain, it is that there is no excuse to give up on life.

Why is it that some combat veterans become homeless alcoholics and drug users stricken with severe PTSD and others—for example Halfaker—end up becoming the successful CEO of her own business with 150 employees and a positive role model for the rest of us?

Discover A Prisoner of War for Life

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Manipulating public opinion to wage war: Part 5/5

For Vietnam (1953 – 1975):  In 1965—soon after the so-called Tonkin Gulf Incident (the Vietnam War’s Pearl Harbor that was the propaganda to drum up support for war)—only 25% thought the war was a mistake. Source: DailyKos.com

In fact, Anup Shah writing for Global Issues, says it required massive propaganda to create the belief that U.S. involvement in Vietnam was because non-communist South Vietnam was invaded by communist North Vietnam and that the regime in the South was democratic—but there never was a democracy in South Vietnam.

This was all untrue. In addition, many think that the Vietnam War was lost due to the media revealing atrocities but this was also untrue.  Noam Chomsky says the American elite typically regarded Vietnam as a “mistake” or tragedy.

Television news in particular was said to have helped America “lose” the war. Yet, television news coverage was arguably poor, and full of news-bites, rather than detailed documentaries. … The Vietnam experience highlights a multitude of factors that contributed to what can only be termed as propaganda for Cold War ideological battles: a mixture of ideological goals, geopolitical and military goals, and issues to do with the nature of reporting and the structure of the media and how it worked, combined with cultural norms, all impacted the way that things were reported, not reported, portrayed, or misrepresented, and this ultimately provided legitimacy for a war that saw millions killed. Source: Global Issues.org

Gallup reported that in 1965, soon after the so-called Tonkin Gulf Incident, 61% of American’s polled said that sending U.S. troops to fight in Vietnam was not a mistake. But by 1971, 70% would say yes—it was a mistake—to the same question.

Again, we hear the echo of President Abraham Lincoln’s words: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” In 1965, the majority of the American people were fooled but by 1971, only a few were still fools.

For the Gulf War—also known as Operation Desert Storm (August 1990 – February 1991)—we learn under the first President Bush that short wars with decisive victories provide less time for the public to change its mind. … In addition, President George H. W. Bush (1989 – 1993), remembering the lessons of Vietnam, sought public support … and he got it.  The vast majority of Americans and a narrow majority of the Congress supported the President’s actions. Source: US History.org

But the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, had his Pearl Harbor on 9/11, and he squandered the public support by relying on false reports of Weapons of Mass Destruction to declare war on Iraq. But this false propaganda succeeded leading to Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003 – 2011).

“Being able to exploit the national anguish and anger over 9/11 was a critical ingredient, of course. But the success of the war-selling campaign was testimony to what a determined use of the opinion-molding capabilities of the government of the day, including the bully pulpit of the presidency, can accomplish.” Source: The National Interest

After Powell’s speech at the UN about WMDs in Iraq, a Gallup poll concluded that 79% of Americans thought the war was justified. However, by 2007, 65% would disapprove of the Iraq War thinking it was not worth fighting, and in March 2013, another survey found that 51.9% of the American public felt that the Iraq War had been a mistake—after all, you cannot fool all of the people, all of the time.

Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (2001 to present): In 2001, Gallup reported that eight of ten Americans (80%) supported a ground war in Afghanistan. But by March 2012—more than a decade later—sixty-nine percent of Americans thought that the United States should not be at war in Afghanistan.

Return to Manipulating public opinion to wage wars: Part 4 or start with Part 1

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_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

US Troops and the Prostitutes that Service Them: Part 3/3

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Before I shipped out to Vietnam, I never received any classes, lectures, inservices or workshops on Southeast Asian culture and at that age—without a college education—I wasn’t curious or interested.

We were US Marines trained to kill. We weren’t there to understand the culture. The only workshop I remember was one about how to avoid getting an STD and how dangerous one strain of syphilis/gonorrhea was in Vietnam.

We were told that if we were careless with a Vietnamese woman, it could be a very painful death sentence from a viral form of an STD that no drugs could cure.

In fact, I didn’t know anyone in my unit who expressed the slightest bit of interest in Vietnam’s culture or history. When we went on five days of R&R during our tour of combat—for example to Hong Kong, Thailand, Okinawa, Japan, or the Philippians—most of us were interested in only one thing: getting drunk and getting laid.

And the hundreds of thousands of US troops who felt the same way were not alone in history.

“According to Beth Bailey and David Farber, during the Second World War a large number of prostitutes in Hawaii, each servicing upward of 100 men a day, made a fiscal “killing.” “Shackjobs,” or long-term, paid relationships with women of Hawaiian or Filipino descent were also common among military personnel stationed in Hawaii (as they were later in Vietnam). …”

And “during the war in Indochina, U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and Sunday Times of London correspondent Murray Sayle maintained, independently of one another, that U.S. forces in South Vietnam had turned Saigon into a “brothel”—a reference to the estimated 500,000 Vietnamese prostitutes who served an approximately equal number of GI’s. … Source: John Brown University

 

In fact, “There were 20,000 prostitutes in Thailand in 1957; by 1964, after the United States established seven bases in the country, that number had skyrocketed to 400,000.” Source: Prostitution in Thailand and Southeast Asia

In addition, “At the height of the US presence in the Philippines, for example, more than 60,000 women and children were employed in bars, night clubs and massage parlors around the Subic Bay and Clark Naval bases alone. Estimates of the total numbers of Filipina women and girls engaged in prostitution and other sex-based industries range between 300,000 and 600,000.” Source: PeaceNews.info – Command and control: the economies of militarized prostitution

And if you think times have changed, read this: “As recently as 2002, a brothel in Australia closed their doors when a group of 5,500 U.S. Sailors coming back from a war zone stopped off in Australia. From the article: Mary-Anne Kenworthy said she was forced to close the doors of her famous Langtrees brothel for only the third time ever yesterday because her prostitutes were so worn out they could no longer provide a quality service.” Source: Cause of Liberty – Prostitution

Do you condemn those who sinned—if it was a sin—or is it wrong to send a young virgin off to possibly die for his country while denying him the pleasure of a woman even if a prostitute was his only choice? What do you think?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

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And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

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US Troops and the Prostitutes Who Service Them: Part 2/3

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When I joined the US Marines, I was a high school graduate and an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy. I was not an intellectual—instead, I was a walking libido filled to overflowing with testosterone like so many of my fellow Marines.

I turned twenty-one in Vietnam, and up to that time Vietnam veterans were the best educated force the United States has ever sent into combat—79% had a high school education or better. Two-thirds of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers, and eighty-six percent of those who died in Vietnam were Caucasians, 12.5% were black, and 1.2% were from other ethnic/racial groups.

If I had gone straight to Vietnam instead of spending a few weeks in Okinawa for additional training, I could have died a virgin—having never known what it was like to be sexually intimate with a woman.

And that reminds me of a film called Mrs. Henderson Presents staring Judi Dench as Mrs. Laura Henderson who opens a theater in London during World War Two with an all-nude female review for the allied troops, because her son had died a virgin in combat and she didn’t want these young men to die without having at least seen a young, nude woman at least once.

Continued on June 28, 2013 in US Troops and the Prostitutes Who Service Them: Part 3 or return to Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

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US Troops and the Prostitutes Who Service Them: Part 1/3

“The sin we condemn — the sinner … we try to understand.”
– Adam Michnik (1946 – )

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The subject of this series of posts is about US troops and prostitution. It has been said that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession.

For example, in 2400 B.C., the Sumerians listed prostitution in one the earliest lists of professions, and the practice of prostitution in ancient Rome was both legal and licensed, and even Roman men of the highest social status were free to engage prostitutes of either sex without incurring moral disapproval. In fact, rent from a brothel was considered a legitimate source of income in the Roman Empire.

In addition, Hammurabi’s Code (1780 B.C.) specifically mentioned the rights of a prostitute or the child of a prostitute.

And in China—600 B.C.—brothels were legal, while in Greece (594 BC) state brothels were founded and a prostitute’s earnings were taxed. Source: Historical Timeline – Prostitution

 

In fact, historically, “where there are soldiers, there are women who exist for them. … In some ways, military prostitution (prostitution catering to, and sometimes organized by, the military) has been so commonplace that people rarely stop to think about how and why it is created, sustained, and incorporated into military life and warfare.” Source: The Asia Pacific Journal

That leads to when I was a US Marine age twenty in Okinawa on my way to fight in one of America’s wars, and I arrived a virgin who desperately didn’t want to be one. And when I left Okinawa for Vietnam, I had achieved a goal that hundreds-of-thousand—and maybe millions—in the US military have achieved both during peace time and war.

Continued on June 26, 2013 in US Troops and the Prostitutes Who Service Them: Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

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Combat casualties and battle-field medicine through the ages: Part 2/2

With the introduction of gun powder, combat casualties increased dramatically, but medical treatment in the battlefield also improved. Field hospitals were introduced by Napoleon. During the Civil War and later in World War I and World War II, trained military medics joined combat units to treat casualties in the field as troops were wounded.

By comparing deaths and the number wounded starting with World War I, we gain a better understanding of how those advances in battlefield medical care improved the odds of survival.

  • World War I (April 6, 1917 – November 11, 1918—one year and eight months): 53,402 deaths and 204,002 wounded in action—an average of 32,170 combat deaths annually.
  • World War II (Dec. 1941 to Aug. 14, 1945—three years and about nine months): 407,300 deaths and 670,846 wounded in action—an average of 108,613 combat deaths annually.

The introduction of the helicopter in Korea and then Vietnam to quickly medevac wounded troops to field hospitals saved many lives.

  • Korea (1950 – 1953—three years): 54,246 deaths and 92,134 wounded in combat—an average of 18,082 combat deaths annually.
  • Vietnam (1956 – 1975—nineteen years): 58,193 deaths and 153,303 wounded in combat—an average of 3,063 combat deaths annually.
  • Desert Storm (1990 – 1991—seven months): 378 deaths and 1,000 wounded in combat—an average of 54 combat deaths a month.
  • Iraq (March 2003 – December 2011—about eight years): 4,403 deaths and 31,827 wounded in combat—an average of 550 combat deaths annually.
  • Afghanistan (October 7, 2001 to present—about eleven years) 2,094 and 18,584 wounded in action—an average of 190 combat deaths annually while back home in the United States more than 30,000 die in vehicle accidents on the roads and highways every year. Sources: Timeline of U.S. Wars and Conflicts and Defense.gov

Today, there are more casualties from suicide than combat. In 2012, the number of active-duty casualties from suicide actually outnumbered the combat deaths in all of Afghanistan, 349 -295.  But it’s even worse than that if you look at the number of suicides by America’s veterans. As of February 4th, TWENTY-TWO veterans kill themselves EVERY DAY. That’s one EVERY 65 MINUTES. Source: Innocence-Clinic.law

Now the challenge is to discover how to treat the invisible wounds and trauma of the mind.

Return to or start with Combat casualties and battle-field medicine through the ages: Part 1

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

Combat casualties and battle-field medicine through the ages: Part 1/2

Starting with the Roman Empire, it has been estimated that Roman Armies suffered about 885,000 casualties over a nine-hundred year period from 400 BC to 500 AD—that adds up to less than 1,000 average combat deaths annually. Source: Body Count of Roman Empire

It seems that the old way of fighting with swords and spears wasn’t as destructive as modern warfare.

The ancient military physicians of the Greeks and the Romans had discovered that certain treatments, such as the application of honey and salt mixtures to wounds—mostly from cuts and jabs—aided the troops to recover.

The decline of the Roman Empire didn’t happen overnight. It took centuries, and when the Roman Empire fell in the 5th century AD, military medical support was almost gone. With the decline of an empire, also came the end of effective medical care in Europe.

About a thousand years would go by before the rebirth of military medicine in Europe in Spain near the end of the 15th century after the Spanish drove out the Islamic Moors. During the wars, the Spanish military copied the mobile hospitals used by the Moorish armies.

 

But in the 15th century, the introduction of gunpowder in combat caused more casualties, because almost all gunshot wounds became infected due to the injury—clothing, dirt, and other debris was often forced into the wound by the musket ball—and/or from unsanitary conditions following the injury caused by the surgeon probing for the musket ball or shrapnel with unwashed fingers and/or unwashed surgical instruments.

It isn’t as if sterilizing surgical instruments was going to be a new concept. The ancient Chinese, Persians and Egyptians all used methods for water sanitation and disinfection of wounds. In fact, Mercuric chloride was used to prevent infection in wounds by Arabian physicians in the Middle Ages but not in Europe.

In fact, in Europe and American in the 1800’s, infections after surgery caused almost half of the deaths of troops wounded in combat.

Though the number of killed and wounded in the Civil War (1861 – 1865) is not known precisely, most sources agree that the total number killed was between 640,000 and 700,000 resulting in an average of 160,000  – 175,000 combat deaths annually—a massive leap from the average annual combat deaths during the Roman Empire where the well trained and highly disciplined Roman military also had observant medics who wrote down treatments that worked and passed this knowledge on to be used by the next military doctor. In fact, Roman surgeons used about the same tools that American doctors did only one hundred years ago.

However, as it turns out, the bloodiest war in American history was also one of the most influential in battlefield medicine. Civil War surgeons learned fast, and amputation of arms and legs saved more lives from death by infection than any other wartime medical procedure. Sources: Mental Floss.com,  American Civil War Casualties and Military Medicine through the Eighteenth Century

Continued on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 in Combat casualties and battle-field medicine through the ages: Part 2

_______________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper left-hand column and click on “FOLLOW!”

The Different Faces of War

We are at war every day, and I’m not talking about Afghanistan. As an author, I know that there are many different types of conflict—there is man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself.

When we think of war, we often think of World War I, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and we ignore the other battles fought daily all over the world.

For example, the tornado in Oklahoma. That was a battle against nature and it was just as devastating as combat in Afghanistan. In Oklahoma—in sixteen minutes—more than fifty died and twenty were children.

Natural disasters are battles in man’s unending war against nature. For a few examples:

  • the tropical cyclone that hit Galveston in 1900 caused 6,000 – 12,000 fatalities.
  • In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake killed 3,000 – 6,000.
  • In 2004, an Indian Ocean earthquake caused a tidal wave that killed 230,000 people.
  • In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people.

Then there is the war with viruses—man vs. nature—such as the flu. For example, the CDC estimates that from the 1976-77 to the 2006-07 flu season, flu-associated deaths ranged from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people (annually).

On January 18, 2013 Bloomberg reported, the flu season, which has now been at epidemic levels for two straight weeks, may result in 36,000 deaths, said William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.


Top FIVE Deadliest Diseases – this video is an entertaining way to scare yourself to death

For another example, there is the war raging on America’s roads every minute of every day. The US Census says that in 2009 alone, there were 35.9 thousand deaths from motor vehicle accidents and that was a low year. In fact, from 1990 to 2009, about 740,000 people lost their lives in vehicle accidents (about 39,000 annually).

In 2012, The Washington Post reported that “The U.S. has far more gun-related killings than any other developed country.” In fact, The U.S. gun murder rate is about 20 times the average for all other developed countries.

How many gun deaths are there in the US every year?

In 2011 alone, the figures from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 31,940 people died in the United States from gun injuries.

  • In 2010 that number was 31,328
  • In 2009 it was 31,177
  • In 2007 it was 31,224
  • In 2004 it was 29,569.

Breaking down deaths from firearms in 2011:

  • Accidental discharge = 851
  • Suicide = 19,766 (man vs. himself) Note: the CDC says that the total number of suicides from all methods was 38,364 for just 2011.
  • Homicide = 11,101
  • Undetermined Intent = 222

By comparison, in World War I, the United States had 53,401 combat deaths (1917-1918) or 26,700 annually.

  • In World War II there were 291,557 combat deaths (1941-1945) or 58,311 annually.
  • In the Korean War there were 33,686 combat deaths (1951 – 1953) or 11,229 annually.
  • In Vietnam there were 47,424 (1955-1975) or 2,371 annually.
  • In Afghanistan there have been 2,012 combat deaths (2001-present) or 168 annually.
  • In Iraq there were 3,542 combat deaths (2003-2011) or 443 annually.

Why do we hear so much about combat deaths and very little about highway deaths, suicide deaths, deaths by virus, natural-disaster deaths, and firearm deaths?

The fatal casualty numbers for Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq show us that the odds of dying a violent death in the United States are much higher than in a combat zone. It seems to me that we’d be safer joining the Army or the Marines and going off to fight in one of America’s wars.

Ignoring the numbers, why is death in combat considered more dramatic and devastating than someone going out to buy a quart of milk and dying in an accident on an American road or accidentally shooting himself cleaning a Smith and Wesson revolver while watching Dancing with the Stars?

Discover how a U.S. Marine Deals with his PTSD through Ballet

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Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran.

His latest novel is the award winning suspense-thriller Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was fighting for the other side.

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