147 dead in one battle does not equal 104 in two battles
Phillip Carter thinks that Iraq is like Vietnam. While this space certainly agrees that the infantry and the Marines fight wars in ways similar to days long past in some instances, the casualty figures presented as equivalent below most certainly are not. Here’s the information on Carter which might help you judge the POV:
Phillip contributes articles on legal and military affairs to Slate, the Washington Monthly, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and CNN.Com. Recently, he has also been featured as an expert on national security law and military affairs in the New York Times, USA Today, the Boston Globe, and has appeared on MSNBC, the Fox News Channel, and National Public Radio.
Here’s what he says in Slate:
In Hue, three Marine battalions (roughly 3,000 men) plunged into a vicious house-to-house fight with 12,000 North Vietnamese, ultimately routing them after suffering harsh losses. In April 2004, three Marine battalions attacked several thousand terrorists in Fallujah and were days away from taking the city when the White House called off the attack. In November, three new Marine battalions joined two Army mechanized infantry battalions in a sweeping attack to retake the city. They succeeded, although outbreaks of fighting continue. While the North Vietnamese fought a coordinated defensive battle for Hue City until they were annihilated, the terrorists in Fallujah fought in small packs, hiding among the tens of thousands of structures in the “city of mosques.” In the three-week battle for Hue, 147 Marines were killed and 857 wounded. In the twin battles for Fallujah, more than 104 soldiers and Marines have been killed and more than 1,100 wounded in a battle that will continue to take lives, like the three Marines who encountered yet another pocket of fighters last week.
Hue and Fallujah provide one of the best generational comparisons of combat because both battles unfolded similarly. Without controlling for any of the advances in medical technology, medical evacuation, body armor, or military technology, U.S. losses in Fallujah almost equal those of Hue.
Carter’s co-author is Owen West, who seems more interested, like his father or uncle Bing, in recording the heroic exploits of the Marines. If the point of the Slate piece is that soldiers and Marines fight as hard a war and as bravely as in times past, we honor that. If the point is that Iraq is Vietnam is quagmire, as the stretch on casualty statistics suggests, then screw Carter.