U.S. toll in Iraq over 500 Count matches Vietnam in 1965

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/01/18/MNGB44CJKR1.DTL

The U.S. military death toll after 10 months of engagement in Iraq surpassed 500 this weekend, roughly matching the number of U.S. military personnel who died in the first four years of the U.S. military engagement in Vietnam.

<snip>

The cumulative toll of 500 deaths was reached in Vietnam in 1965, the year when the U.S. deployment there rose from 23,300 to 184,300 troops. In Iraq, in contrast, the United States is rotating forces, with the goal of reducing the total from 130,000 to 105,000 by June and also sharply scaling back its military presence in Baghdad.

On Saturday, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a military spokesman in Iraq, dismissed the significance of reaching the threshold of 500 deaths. "I do not believe that any arbitrary ... figure is going to cause any soldiers to lose their will or their focus," he said.

But Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, said the rising death toll could undermine the popularity of President Bush and support for his handling of the conflict, even if it does not build support for a U.S. withdrawal.

[Old and In the Way]

1. And the reason why Americans are dying in Iraq is ..........

[rfranklin]

2. Just like he eclipsed Reagan in deficits, and Hoover in job losses, Bush

has eclipsed the killing of LBJ's years in Vietnam in the space of ten months. What a man! What a leader!

[saigon68]

3. What a leader!----- "Bring Em On"', shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE Coward

Yes a lot of new GOLD STAR Families.

[daleo]

4. More or less says going in was a mistake

But staying isn't a mistake? As they said about Viet Nam, do you want to be the last person to die for a mistake?

"He said the public continued to be led by a consensus among elites in support of continued U.S. military engagement in Iraq. "There is a lot of controversy about whether we should have gone in," Kull noted, adding that even among Democratic presidential candidates, only Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich favors a U.S. withdrawal."