should not be taken for granted... In part the low rate is very rare in the history of warfare...
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20080909.aspx >>> The war in Afghanistan has been notable for how low the casualty rate has >>> been for troops killed in combat. We'll use a standard measure of combat >>> losses, the number of troops in a combat division (12-20,000 troops) who >>> are killed each day the division is in combat. Since late 2001, there have >>> been .12 American combat deaths per division day in Afghanistan. During the >>> Vietnam war, the average division lost 3.2 troops a day, which was similar >>> to the losses suffered in Korea (1950-53). In Iraq, the losses have been >>> .44 deaths per division per day. By comparison, during World War II the >>> daily losses per American averaged (over 400-500 combat days) about twenty >>> soldiers per day. On the Russian front, German and Russian divisions lost >>> several times that, and often over a hundred a day for weeks on end. For short campaigns, which Iraq and Afghanistan are not, the losses were similar. That's why the concept of "days in combat" is used. During World War II, and before and since, divisions would often be out of the combat zone for days, or weeks, before going back into action. Thus the spectacular six week German conquest of France in 1940, saw their combat divisions taking 30 dead (on average) per day. But during another spectacular military victory, the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli dead were 22 per division per day, and that actually went down to 18 a day during the less spectacular 1973 war. By contrast, the three week invasion of Iraq in 2003 saw U.S. troops suffering 1.6 dead per day per division. During the 2006 Israeli war in Lebanon, Israel lost 8 soldiers per division per day. With the dramatic drop in casualties, came another big shift. In World War II, one in three casualties was killed. In Iraq and Afghanistan, only 12 percent of the casualties were fatal. This does not change the dramatic difference between combat losses then and now. In World War II, U.S. divisions suffered about 60 dead and wounded per combat day, while in Afghanistan there has been one (1) per combat day, and in Iraq, 3.5. So by any measure, U.S. troops have learned how to avoid getting hit. U.S. commanders see the reasons as better equipment, tactics, weapons, leadership and training than in the past. With an all-volunteer force, the troops are smarter and more physically fit as well. Many of the life-saving innovations U.S. troops have come up with in the past seven years have not gotten much publicity. Good news doesn't sell, but in this case, it has definitely saved lives. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
