Memorial Day

Today is Memorial day, a US federal holiday to remember fallen US military.  The day made me ask the question just how many US troops have died for this country.    If you  add up all the deaths from all the wars and engagements all the way back to the American Revolutionary war in 1775 to present day the estimate is over 664,000 combat deaths.  If you include all the fallen US citizens due to conflicts then that number jumps to over 1.3 million fallen Americans, with another 1.4 million wounded.  That is a lot of loss and affected families in this country.  So thanks to all those brave men and women and  who have sacrificed  for this country.  Your sacrifice is remembered not just this day, but is witnessed every day we enjoy freedom in this country.

This Memorial day I was just thinking of war in general and how ugly it can be.  I have no doubt that sometimes wars are inevitable and even necessary based on how our civilization behaves.   Humankind has always been good at finding better and more destructive ways to war.  We even have rules of war that define what should and should not be done in in war.  That doesn't even seem like it should be real when you really think about it.   For the foreseeable future humankind will continue to war and even when necessary it is not pretty.   Military personnel will die, civilians will die,  kids will be orphaned, wounds will not fully heal, and minds will be broken.  Death is certainly not the only consequence of war.   While I looked to see how many US deaths are from wars, I was wondering just how many deaths there have been worldwide.  I could find some data on some of the biggest wars.  Most of these engagements have a high and low estimate of deaths from military and civilians.  The mean estimate (between the high and low) of deaths from the biggest conflicts in the recorded history of our civilization is over 347 million people.   347 million !!!!     The 2014 population of the United States was 318.9 million and Canada is 35 million. In the world's recorded history the equivalent of the United States and Canada's population has been wiped out.  Humans have single handedly killed almost a continent of people.

Again I will not dispute the need for war in some circumstances.   We are wired to fight and protect.  There is good and there is evil.   War is a reality and so this Memorial day and all other's I remember the US soldiers that have given their lives for this country.  But I also mourn for our race and world who have destroyed each other for centuries.  I hope that one day, maybe still centuries from now our civilization will won't have to celebrate a "Memorial Day" because wars will be just a long forgotten memory.


References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll