Casualties in perspective

Outside the Beltway:

As the data show, 800 deaths pales in comparison with almost every war we've ever fought. And, certainly, one doesn't want to take the disproportionate American deaths argument too far when one looks at the two World Wars. We lost many times 800 in both the Mexican War and the Spanish-American War, the rationales for which are long forgotten by most.

Indeed, there are perhaps dozens of battles in American history in which we took more than 800 deaths. A very few examples:

Antietam: 3620 killed (23,110 dead and wounded)

Gettysburg: 7,058

Pearl Harbor: 2,403

Iwo Jima: nearly 7,000

Bataan Death March: credible estimates vary widely from 7,000 to nearly 10,000

D-Day: approximately 2500

Not to mention:

9/11/01: 3,047 (+/-2,823 at WTC, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania--excluding terrorists)


Joyner also notes:

Battle of Somme (in World War I) cost 19,240 British lives on a single day (total British casualties that day: 57,470)

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