Mountain Blog

Sorry, No Match

Those who continue to tell us that our post-war nation building stay in Iraq is short compared to our post-war nation building in Germany after World War II need to (a) take a break and (b) stop trying to re-write history.

Slate Magazine offered a comparison of these two experiences three years ago at a time when Condi Rice was trying to tell us that American soldiers faced death and other dangers in Germany after we conquered the Hitler machine. You can read the article here. .

Here's the nut graph:

According to America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq, a new study by former Ambassador James Dobbins, who had a lead role in the Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo reconstruction efforts, and a team of RAND Corporation researchers, the total number of post-conflict American combat casualties in Germany—and Japan, Haiti, and the two Balkan cases—was zero.

Get that? No deaths of American soldiers. In fact, it appears that the biggest problem in Germany after the war apparently was soldier fraternization with the former enemy.

Now, can we move on to something else besides re-writing history?

posted by Dave Peyton @ 8:30 AM