Iraq vs. Vietnam Body Count

[Midwest_Doc]

Can anyone provide an up-to-date count of U.S. casualties in Iraq? I recall reading that the Iraq casualty rate is AHEAD of Vietnam after one year of war.

*re-defeat Bush in '04*

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Link to Iraq casualties, you'll have to find the timeline for VN

http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

[Qanisqineq]

2. I have heard... don't know how reliable it is...

that 300+ were killed in Vietnam in the first TWO years. That could be completely wrong. Don't quote me on it.

[chelsea0011]

3. It probably is but Vietnam, never a declared war, never had a "start' date

I think US advisors were in as early as Eisenhower and certainly during Kennedy. Troops started arriving in force during early years of LBJ. Many years to fully involve in Vietnam. You can't really compare Iraq and Vietnam by using body count and one shouldn't. But there is a huge comparison concerning the US government lying to the American people to involve us in an immoral war.

[NewJeffCT]

4. Not only that

But, Vietnam was embroiled in a hot civil war and we took sides in it. North Vietnam also had a very large army that was supplied by the Chinese & the Soviets. The Iraqis got their weapons from the US in the 80s and are pretty outdated.

Now, if Iraq devolved into a civil war and we took one side, then we could start making more honest comparison to Vietnam, especially if somebody started arming the other side (though, I don't know who would do that these days - I don't think China or Russia would now)