UPDATE: A reader (yes, I have one) commented rightly that my comparison is meaningless without knowing the total number of soldiers involved - in other words, to compare, I need a percentage. However, my title is probably the worse offense, because my point in this post is that by sheer numbers of men and women AWOL, the 500,000 would be a significant number of voices to ignore, as compared to 40,000, regardless of the total number involved. Of course, we couldn't expect as many from the current quagmire anyway, since it's a sure bet that more drafted soldiers would be likely to go AWOL than voluntary enlistments. So the comparison breaks down there maybe even moreso. I should change the title of the post, but, what the heck.
Original post:
Estimated number of AWOL GIs from the Viet Nam war: 500,000
Estimated number of AWOL GIs to date since the invasion of Iraq: 5,500 - 40,000.
I suspect the extremely high number in Viet Nam added more weight to the ending of the war than the protests back home, as intense as they were.
We may be in the Gulf until a lot more soldiers decide it's not worth it, it's illegal, or it's immoral, and refuse to go.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
You may be right about the effect of Vietnam AWOLS but to make a comparison, don't you need to know the total number of people who served over the course of Vietnam's duration versus the total number of people who have served over these recent Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts?
ReplyDeletethat would be a scientific comparison, and it would definitely be a better comparison. but since the estimated number for the current "war" is anywhere from 5-40,000, it's a wild hair shot anyway. since i'm not a reporter, nor do i ever claim to be 'fair and balanced,' i sometimes - maybe oft times - put things in my posts that wouldn't hold water in any debate. forgive me if i pull a page from bill o'reilly or glen beck, or god forbid, rush limbaugh, by spouting off without bothering to be altogether reasonable. at least i don't have thousands of readers - you may be one of only three, in fact - but also, at least my few readers are smart enough to understand when i'm spouting. as you've just proved. thanks for reading. thanks for writing.
ReplyDeletemany blessings,
m