Body Count

As many have heard, there is a very popular movie out now called "300". The movie is about the 300 Spartans that held off the Persian Army at the battle of Thermopylae. A good article describing what happened is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

I watched a documentary on the 300 this weekend. As I watched, I was amazed at the thought that 300 Spartans (the Delta Force of the day) could hold back the Persian Army of 2.6 million. In reality, on the last day when the forces were surrounded and died to the last man, there were 300 Spartans and 1000 other Greek troops there, bringing the body count on the Greek side to a total of 1300 (for this battle).

The Persians lost 10,000 the first day. Then they sent in 10,000 of their special forces (the Immortals). They were cut to pieces. Then they sent in another 20,000 troops. After that they sent in 10's of thousands more. Finally, they were able to flank the Spartans and defeat them. The Persian body count was over 40,000. Total time for this battle was 2-3 days.

The United States in the Iraq war has lost fewer than 3,500 troops. That includes those killed in accidents, heart attacks in the combat zone, etc. (not just combat related injuries or IED's). We have been in this particular war 4 years now.

We have lost 3,500 people in 4 years. The Persians lost over 40,000 in 2-3 days and kept going. We lose 3,500 in 4 years and we can't wait to quit.

We should be ashamed.

Aloha.