Battle/War Population Forces Casualties
(mil) (thou) (thou)
---------- ---------- ------ ----------
Agincourt (Br) 3 6 0.4
Agincourt (Fr) ? 25 8
Span-Am 75 307 4
Philippines
US 80 ? 4.5
Filipino ? ? 200
WW I 100 4,735 310
WW II (USSR) 130 ? 30,000 (w/ civilians) !
WW II (US) 133 16,000 1,060
Vietnam 195 8,744 200
Beiruit Bombing 220? ? 0.32
Iraq I (US) 250 200? 0.38
Iraq II (US) 275 130? 2.65
Iraq II (Iraqi) 20? ? 20? (w/ civilians)
Death in an unnecessary war is always a tragic waste, but even the
recent examples above involve unfathomably many more deaths than has
our adventure in Iraq. Clearly we are now more sensitive to
casualties in all wars, even colonial ones, than we were at the turn
of the century.
I draw two lessons from this: first, that we need to keep our rhetoric
and response in proportion to the loss, to reserve levels of
description and outrage for past and possibly future events that
completely eclipse Iraq. Second, I take some comfort in the fact that
we can be outraged about 600 men now -- it is only because life is
so much less wretched and violent now than it has been.
(See here, here, and here, among other places. Some of these involve a bit of guesswork, and I'm not a military history buff, so don't hesitate to post corrections. This was a semi-random selection of wars, not intended to be comprehensive or statistically valid.)