cuchulainn
Member
[RANT]
Not to belittle the casualties one bit, but we Americans need to buck up.
We are invading a nation! A few people have been hurt or killed.
Imagine that at D-Day plus 5 we'd had fewer than 100 casualties (dead, wounded and captured, combined), whole German divisions had surrendered and we'd pushed hundreds of miles into France. We'd have seen it as a miracle of Biblical proportions.
Now I know that comparing D-Day to now is very shaky -- so many differences ... technology, topography, enemy strategy, you name it.
But geeze! Fewer than 100 casualties, and today I hear these phrases from the talking heads and other press: "setbacks" "stiff resistance" "slower than expected advance" (probably the same ones who were all gah-gah about the "unprecedented" fast advance just two days ago), "reconsidering strategy."
Fah! Poppycock!
Perfectionism is well and good. Yep, the goal should be zero casualties, but let's be realistic and not hightail it yip-yipping when we don't reach that impossible goal.
Imagine if the news organizations had a webcam atop the Normandy cliffs. They'd be playing the utter defeat of Allied troops 24/7 -- after all, the Germans ...gasp.... inflicted casualties, heavy casualties.
Don't you know? If you take casualties, you have failed.
[/RANT]
Not to belittle the casualties one bit, but we Americans need to buck up.
We are invading a nation! A few people have been hurt or killed.
Imagine that at D-Day plus 5 we'd had fewer than 100 casualties (dead, wounded and captured, combined), whole German divisions had surrendered and we'd pushed hundreds of miles into France. We'd have seen it as a miracle of Biblical proportions.
Now I know that comparing D-Day to now is very shaky -- so many differences ... technology, topography, enemy strategy, you name it.
But geeze! Fewer than 100 casualties, and today I hear these phrases from the talking heads and other press: "setbacks" "stiff resistance" "slower than expected advance" (probably the same ones who were all gah-gah about the "unprecedented" fast advance just two days ago), "reconsidering strategy."
Fah! Poppycock!
Perfectionism is well and good. Yep, the goal should be zero casualties, but let's be realistic and not hightail it yip-yipping when we don't reach that impossible goal.
Imagine if the news organizations had a webcam atop the Normandy cliffs. They'd be playing the utter defeat of Allied troops 24/7 -- after all, the Germans ...gasp.... inflicted casualties, heavy casualties.
Don't you know? If you take casualties, you have failed.
[/RANT]