Of course, sadly, someone is going to die in any conflict, regardless of how small unless it's just a fist fight that is broken up quickly.
Old fashioned war mentality is to just keep sending in men until goals are reached, enemy is subdued, enforcing a draft if need be, with exceptionally heavy casualties on every front.
Conflict resolution has casualties but efforts are made to keep them minimal and destruction, if necessary, will occur. Diplomacy, management, and other non combat methods are favored instead of the send them all in and let them die approach.
Conflict resolution has a plan that involves retreat when the conflict has been resolved. People tend to view this as losing the war, if they are in the invading country, when in reality, there are no winners or losers in wars only losers. Conflict resolution seeks to make everyone stronger, not weaker, in this respect.
Afghanistan death rate tops Vietnam
British troops on the front line in Afghanistan are suffering the highest fatality rate since the Second World War after a dramatic escalation in fighting in recent weeks.
Soldiers are being killed in such numbers that if the current level continues the losses will be greater than among U.S. troops in Vietnam.
One in 36 would not survive a six-month tour of duty - a more chilling toll than
experienced in the Falklands or the Korean War.
Both the Tories and the Lib-Dems yesterday called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown urgently to review his policy in Afghanistan before the death toll worsens.
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The figures came as the Foreign Office revealed that this year's opium crop in Afghanistan is expected to be a record-breaker, suggesting that Nato troops have lost control of the region.
The latest British soldier to die in Afghanistan was a serviceman from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, who was killed on Saturday during an attack on a patrol base in Helmand Province.
He was the seventh British fatality since July 12, and the fourth since last Monday, compared with a monthly average of 0.7 deaths since the conflict began in November 2001.
If the current death toll is sustained, 42 troops will die over a six-month period, or one in 36 of the 1,500 men serving as frontline troops in the battle against the Taliban.
The situation in Iraq is little better, with the current death rate of five personnel from the 1,500-strong battle group equating to one in 50 for a sixmonth tour.
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By comparison, British troops serving in the Falklands would have had a one in 45 chance of being killed if the war had continued for six months, and one in 58 of British troops who fought in Korea were killed.
Even the notorious Vietnam war claimed a smaller
percentage of the lives of those who served in uniform, around one in 46. Deaths among
servicemen in the Second World War ran at one in 19.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former commanding officer of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, which has lost three men in Afghanistan, said: "For people serving in certain regiments at the moment, this is the sort of casualty rate which hasn't been seen since World War Two.
"We are talking about a very small number of units that are taking the brunt of the
casualties, and every man in each battalion will know every
single man who has been killed.
"Meanwhile the Government has continued to make defence cuts, with three more battalions recently disbanded, which means that these sixmonth tours will come around more and more frequently."
LibDem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the
Government needed to review its strategy in both Iraq and Afghanistan "before the death toll rises further."
He added: "These statistics are deeply saddening, above all because they represent personal tragedies for hundreds of British families.
"But they are also an indictment of a Government which has no clear idea how to get British forces home without further heavy loss of life."
Although the total number of personnel currently serving in Afghanistan is around 6,000, all seven of the casualties over the past month have come from the 1,500 frontline soldiers trying to defeat the Taliban.
The ferocity of the conflict in Afghanistan has escalated dramatically in recent weeks. From 2001 to the end of 2005 five British personnel died there; in 2006 the figure was 39, and so far this year 26 have died.
In Iraq, meanwhile, five personnel from the 1,500-strong battle group have died in the past month, equating to 30 deaths over a six-month period, or one in 50.
Taking into account all 5,500 British service personnel currently serving in Iraq, the death toll for the past month is nine, the equivalent of one in 102 of all personnel being killed during a six-month tour of duty.
Four servicemen were killed in Iraq last week alone,
bringing the total this year to 41.
In 2003, the year of the invasion, the total death toll was
53. The average death toll since the Iraq war began in 2003 is 2.5 per month.
Meanwhile the Foreign Office revealed that opium poppy production in Afghanistan is spiralling out of control under the noses of British troops.
Sources said this summer's crop - the world's main source of heroin - would exceed last year's total, despite efforts to crack down on the trade, which helps to fund the Taliban.
Defence Secretary Des Browne said a "long-term commitment" in Afghanistan is essential to prevent its return to a training ground for
terrorists, and insisted progress was being made.
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03 Mar 2014, 8:27 pm
