Now that the 60 year armistice has been declared invalid by North Korea's pudgy, adorable, but not very bright exalted poo-bah via nepotism, things are likely to heat up pretty quickly. Any predictions? Minor sea skirmishes between the Koreas? A nuke headed for Hawaii? A pre-emptive strike by Obama? A return to the all-out war that few Americans know much about as it is barely even mentioned in public schools? According to the data from the U.S. Department of Defense, the United States suffered 33,686 battle deaths, along with 2,830 non-battle deaths during the Korean War and 8,176 missing in action.[218] South Korea reported some 373,599 civilian and 137,899 military deaths.[9] Western sources estimate the PVA suffered about 400,000 killed and 486,000 wounded, while the KPA suffered 215,000 killed and 303,000 wounded.[19] Data from official Chinese sources, on the other hand, reported that the PVA had suffered 114,000 battle deaths, 34,000 non-battle deaths, 340,000 wounded, 7,600 missing and 21,400 captured during the war. Among those captured, about 14,000 defected to Taiwan while the other 7,110 were repatriated to China.[219] Chinese sources also reported that North Korea had suffered 290,000 casualties, 90,000 captured and a "large" number of civilian deaths.[219] In return, the Chinese and North Koreans estimated that about 390,000 soldiers from United States, 660,000 soldiers from South Korea and 29,000 other UN soldiers were "eliminated" from the battlefield.[219] Recent scholarship has put the full death toll on all sides at just over 1.2 million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#Civilian_deaths_and_massacres
No fun war predictions on my end, but somewhat related, I do find it funny that the executive chairman of Google went over to espouse the benefits of using the internet, when the entire country is so disconnected electrically that it looks like this from satellite imagery -
Should have gone to Iraq instead. We "only" lost 4,000 soldiers there. Still, it puts things in a little perspective.
My great-uncle wrote a book on The Korean War. He was soldier for the U.S. and was captured. It was about his experience as a POW, and he eventually escaped with the help of a prison guard. His book (and his overall experience) was later used for escape and evasion training in the military. It's a solid read, you should check it out (and I'm not just saying it because he's a relative). Valley of the Shadow.
Obviously, since we never heard about it. Different war, but related note: my grandfather was in the Army, and was a helluva photographer. After dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, his job was to ride in planes that were flying over areas devastated by the bomb and take pictures. I've always been super-fascinated by the old wars and what not, so I've got a pretty good history of family members' involvement in the various war over the years. Kept it all in journal of sorts, I suppose you could call it.
...not the easiest book to find either! Here are a couple links to help anyone interested: --> biblio --> ebay
There are a few copies on Amazon, too. I should add that it was written by Ward Millar. The author's name always is helpful.
[video=youtube;D_GnyOIRRtY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_GnyOIRRtY[/video] EDIT: Why does it embed sometimes, and just show a link other times?
Probably cuz sometimes you select "Insert Link" and other times you select "Insert Video"? Just my guess....
Netanyahoo says, "No, wait! Have your fun on one of OUR war fronts!" With electricity still on only a few hours per day in Iraq, compared to most people having 24-hour air conditioning under Saddam, what does the picture look like there?
I've never had any issues like that. Except once. When I thought I hit "Insert Video" but I realized later I'd hit "Insert Link". That's above my pay grade - you'll have to take it up the chain to DC.
