JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY ALEXANDER HIGGINS IN HIS BLOG

No, the true toll is tens of thousands of Afghans, not to mention the Pakistanis now being killed.

One could throw in the million dead Iraqis since the Afghan adventure was used as an excuse for that adventure.

Americans tend always to measure the impact of their wars by the number of Americans killed.

That is neither accurate nor ethical.

How many times did we hear about the 60-odd thousand Americans killed in Vietnam?

And it was the rate of those deaths which ended the war.

But the real toll was 3 million Vietnamese killed, many horribly, millions made homeless, an ancient society torn apart, and a sea of Agent Orange and landmines left to kill and maim for decades.

You could fairly add, too, the horrors of Cambodia, for America’s incursions and secret bombing were responsible for the neutral government’s fall. America is doing much the same today in Pakistan.