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4/07/2003 03:04:00 AM | Brad Plumer

Iraqi soldier casualties

War supporters are gushing over how many Iraqi soldiers we've wiped out, using the figure as a benchmark for the war's success. But Gregg Easterbrook of The New Republic notes that soldier casualties are no less tragic than civilian casualties:

Though valid military targets, most Iraqi combatants are forced conscripts who want no fight. They're poorly trained and poorly equipped, with almost no chance of survival should they be foolish enough to discharge any weapon: The U.S. military locates and obliterates sources of fire with almost robotic competence. Most Iraqi combatants are in uniform not through voluntary choice, as is the case with all U.S. and British combatants, but because they were impressed. Iraqi men cannot refuse conscription, and face summary execution if they try to return to their families. It's awful when even one Iraqi civilian dies, but civilian deaths are occurring in small numbers by the standards of warfare. Iraqi combatants are dying en masse. This conflict must end soon so that the United States can stop doing what is, by the logic of war, entirely legal, proper, fair, and necessary--killing Iraqi soldiers.
Yep. He also argues that Iraq may be the easiest country in the world to conquer-- even Syria could be a more difficult military operation. Read it all here.



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