January 07

World War Two Deaths (military and civilian)
Micro Rant 010701
Ask a friend how many people were killed in WWII. Go ahead and guess yourself now.
Total - between 50 to 70 million, and more than half were civilians (adults and children).
How many for the U.S? - about a half million (same for Brits and French)
How many Jews and Germans? - each about 6 million
Japanese - about 2 million
How many Russians (USSR) - over 25 million !
Incidentally, and surprisingly, Asian (Chinese, Filipinos, etc.) deaths were about 10million. Most people were not even aware that China participated.
My non-scientific poll among friends average guesses were about 2 million total deaths, with the U.S number at 40,000. Incredible. Think how our skewed understanding might affect our world view, our feelings about war and, for instance, Russian paranoia about NATO troops at their borders.

Iraq War Deaths Since 2003
Even shorter Micro Rant 010702
Underreporting is a problem. You might guess that from the U.S. governments ban of photos of returning caskets. They still do not want us to grasp what is going on over there.
The current consensus is about 150,000 deaths, more than 2/3 are civilians, more than half are women and children non-combatants. The U.S. portion is less than 5,000.
There have been about 500 U.S. amputations and it is estimated that a third of returning troops have PTSD or other emotional problems related to combat activities, even suicides.