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I thought that some statistical data might elucidate the extent to which the U.S. (and the Confederacy) in the past so willingly absorbed huge casualties while never calling it quits to the bitter end. In almost every case of "foreign" wars, because of our hybrid status as both a continental power and an island nation of sorts, we had the option to stay out of the conflict. We also had the option, nearly every day once we jumped in -- put the Revolution and Civil War on this list -- to ask for peace talks, not demand unconditional surrender.
Why did we care what Germany did to France and England or vice versa in World War I? Was the sinking of a British passenger liner (the Lusitania) by a German U-boat, with the loss of a few dozen American lives, reason enough to take on the subsequent casualties once we joined the European fray? Why didn't we follow the same line of reason that Japan expected we would, right after Pearl Harbor, and just swallow the loss of eight battleships that the attack itself showed were obsolescent anyway. Why didn't we stop with the first two thousand or so U.S. KIAs on December 7, 1941, and negotiate a quick armistice? And who cared if South Korea or South Vietnam got overrun by commies? Both countries were literally on the opposite side of the globe from Washington, DC! Something vital in our heritage, in our values, in our passion for fairness and compassion for the downtrodden everywhere, must have made us do what we did, time after time after time.
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OK, the statistics. I hoped it would be revealing to compare the cost in lives that America paid in the different major wars we've fought. This might help put a perspective on the mounting casualty list in Iraq. I'm sure not everyone will agree with me on what the numbers mean, but the numbers in themselves don't lie. I tried to use the most reliable sources I could find. For American deaths in wars, I took info from the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA. For the American population at the time of each war, I started with data from the U.S. Census Bureau for every tenth year, then approximated the years in between using methods I learned as an actuary. (For brevity, I'm going to skip the War of 1812 -- 2,260 U.S. KIAs -- and the Spanish-American War -- 2,446 U.S. KIAs -- but note in passing that the Mexican-American war of 1846-1848 had a substantial 13,283 official U.S. KIAs.)
Now then. In the Revolutionary War, 4,500 Americans -- troops and civilians -- died because of the war and its direct effects, including disease. (I've seen numbers as high as 12,500 or even 25,000 on various Internet blogs or discussion boards, but I'm going to go with the Army's figure.) This 4,500 might not sound like much, since between the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the four airplanes involved, almost that many people were killed in one day on September 11, 2001. But during the Revolutionary War, the American population was around 2.5 million people, less than a hundredth of what it is now. That means that about 1 out of every 500 Americans, including old men and women and children, died in the birth of our country.
In the so-called Civil War, which was anything but civil, total deaths from North and South combined were 620,000. In that era, the combined population averaged some 33 million. Thus, in the Civil War about 1 in every 50 Americans, free or in slavery's bondage, was killed. This was truly our bloodiest war. The statistic 1 in 50 is shocking -- I know it really shocked me.
In the First World War, 117,000 Americans were killed. The population then was right around 100 million. Death rate: about 1 in 1000. Among the European powers involved, many millions died, but the Great War was a war that the U.S. -- some would say -- need not have fought in at all.
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