Now I don’t want to down grade or make light of the original Gulf War Syndrome, but there is another variety or should I say strain of the syndrome.  It seems that since the fight in the Persian Gulf back in 1991 most of America seems to have been afflicted with this strain of GWS.  This different strain may also be traced back to the mid to late 60’s during the conflict in Viet Nam and just went viral from the early 90’s through today in 2010.  With Memorial Day weekend behind us it seems to have died down a little bit but it is still present.  The symptoms of this syndrome can be seen every day on the streets of America and it affects people from all walks of life regardless of their color, creed, socioeconomic status, or sexual orientation.

It wasn’t that long ago that Afghanistan was the “Good War” and we were told that Iraq was a “War of Choice”.  In fact President Obama campaigned on the fact that we as a nation needed to win in Afghanistan.  He told Americans that he would do everything in his power to win the “Good War.  Back then we were keeping the bad guys score in Iraq, you know the casualty counts.  As Congress continued to put pressure on the Bush Administration to end the “occupation” of Iraq the media would report the body count.  But, the majority of the media only kept score for the bad guys.  How many times have you heard the combined total of bad guys killed?  I personally have never heard the total enemy body count.  Yes, after a big operation certain media sources may give us an estimated count of enemy dead for that operation; but I have never once heard a total count of Taliban or al qaeda killed by the good guys.

Because of the way that the media reports on the progress of the Global War on Terror, oops sorry I meant to say the Overseas Contingency Operations, fuels the spread of the new strain of Gulf War Syndrome.  Now you are probably wondering what this new strain of the syndrome is seeing as how I haven’t told you what to look for.  I call it the new strain of Gulf War Syndrome for the simple fact that since the swift and complete victory over the 1,000,000 man Army of the late Saddam Hussein back in 1991 Americans expect the same swift and nearly casualty free resolution to war each and every time America is forced to take action.

This type of anti-war reporting started over in Viet Nam so I attribute the beginning of this syndrome to the late 60’s.  Although the news schedule, and the media sources have multiplied exponentially since then the style of reporting has remained.  It is still slanted towards telling us how many of our brave young men and women have been killed while doing a report on whatever war is currently playing out and telling us what a shame that our brave had to die for some political reason.

I do not mean to downplay the lose of a hero that is felt by their family and friends, or denigrate any of the deaths of our heroes, but if you go a few decades further back in history you will find a conflict that makes our current one look like a walk in the park as far as casualties go.  If you back to World War II there was a fight that we delayed getting into because it wasn’t our fight, or so the American people were told, you will find that the casualty rates were much higher than they are today, thank God.  The casualty rates have been held as low as they have because of the advances in medical technology and troop training.

This is not a bad thing, but, unfortunately, it has brought the American expectations for war to unrealistic and near impossible to attain standards and expectations.  War is never a good thing, at best it is a necessary evil that must be practiced at certain periods in history; and when attacked it is only prudent to do whatever is possible to alleviate the threat that is posed by those forces that would like nothing more than to see us crumble and fade away in history.

In the grand scope of things when looked at through the military lens, or at least the military lens that this Lance Corporal uses, 5,487 (figure from icasualty.org) killed in a fight to keep Americans and our interests and friends safe is a small price to pay.  Let’s take a look at just a few of the battles from World War II for a little perspective.

Guadal Canal                      Navy                      1,196 (from www.history.navy.mil)

Marines                 1,065 (from www.history.navy.mil)

Tarawa                                 Navy                         725 (from www.history.navy.mil)

Marines                   984 (from www.history.navy.mil)

Palau Islands                      Navy                       195 (from www.history.navy.mil)

Marines                1,272 (from www.history.navy.mil)

D-Day Invasion                 American            1,465 (from wikianswers.com)

Iwo Jima                              Navy                        982 (from www.history.navy.mil)

Marines                4,521 (from www.history.navy.mil)

This is just a small snapshot of WWII and it totals 12,405 Americans killed due to combat actions in only five battles, with total Americans Killed in Action during WWII at just under 300,000 (wikianswers.com puts the American KIA total at 406,000) from December 7, 1941, through the end of WWII in 1945.  These numbers from Iraq and Afghanistan equate to about just under two percent of the casualty rate of WWII in a span of time that is approximately twice as long.

And while we are talking about the length of the fighting, here is the other part of this new strain of Gulf War Syndrome that started during the war in Viet Nam and has multiplied exponentially since the Gulf War in 1991, America has lost the stomach to continue the fight until the fight is finished.  Since 1991 Americans expect that wars will be fought and won in a matter of days, weeks or at the longest months.  The sad fact is that the Gulf War was an anomaly and the type of fight that we are in today is totally different than the fight we were in back in 1991 or WWII.

Today we fight an enemy that uses tactics that are very similar to what Israel has been facing for the past 30 years.  We fight an enemy that is totally driven by a religious zealotry that dictates that those who do not believe the same way that they do are to be subjugated or killed, or subjugated and then killed if they refuse to convert and follow the same religious tenants that they do.  We are fighting an enemy that has absolutely no value for human life. We are fighting an enemy that not only hides in and among the local civilian population using them as shields they actively kill civilians as a means of keeping the local people in compliance through terror.  And I am not just talking about the use of IED’s by the bad guys to attack American military personnel; I am talking about the brutal beatings and torture to keep the people of Fallujah in line.  I am talking about the baking of children by al qaeda in Baqubah, Iraq if a family would not offer up a child to be a suicide bomber.  And yes this is a confirmed report from Michael Yon, if you don’t know who he is Google him.

Unlike World War II we are not fighting an enemy that will stand out in the open and fight like men, they hide and use weapons like IED’s that are indiscriminate.  I believe that our young Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines are disciplined enough military personnel that I trust their judgment to keep collateral damage to a minimum even with the bad guys hiding behind women and children.   But for some reason our Congress and a large portion of the American public expects 19 year old Marine Lance Corporals and Army Privates First Class, both E3’s, to conduct themselves to higher standards then are expected of our political leaders.

Our own General McChrystal has said that we cannot measure the success in Afghanistan by how many bad guys we kill; we have to judge our success or failure by the number of Afghan civilian casualties, whether they are collateral damage or victims of the Taliban and al qaeda. I realize that Barak Obama was elected to the office of President of the United States and that make him the Commander-in-Chief but that does not make the fight in Afghanistan or Iraq all unicorns and rainbows; we are still fighting an enemy that would like nothing more than to see America go down in flames and hope to kill as many Americans as they possibly can whether in Afghanistan or New York City.