You know life itself really comes down to three things; living, dying and what you do in-between the two.
For 9 or so months your on your way in, the rest of your life your on your way out.
In either case you have very little say in the matter.
Death can be a mysterious thing; actually for the most part not so much.
Since the founding of America death can be easily measured and defined.
Death for many was a choice or an option.
For most it was not.
There are always opinions on the subject, but this is not about opinion, this is about numbers.
So here are the facts.
In the Revolutionary War 4,400 Americans were killed.
Pretty sure they didn't have the option to not fight unless the wanted to move back to England.
Mexican War = 13,000 Americans killed War of 1812 = 2,200 Americans killed Civil War= 620,000 killed, both sides.
Total number of soldiers in battle 3.
2 million.
WWI = 116,000 Americans killed.
But...
this gets interesting.
I know that 116k Americans seems like a lot and it is, but in that same war Romania lost 250k, (Romania!), Italy lost 500k, UK lost 750k, France & Austria each lost 1.
3 MILLION (MILLION!), USSR lost 1.
7 Million, and Germany lost 2.
0 Million.
Wow.
In total between soldiers and civialians WWI cost the world over 10 Million lives.
So somehow the US managed to only (yes only) lose 116k soldiers and we won, for the most part anyway.
Either the Russians and the Germans sucked at war or we were just that much better at it.
Point is still coming.
WWII= 407,000 American soldiers killed.
A much bigger number.
But hold on, France 200k, Italy 300k, UK 383k, Japan 2.
1 million, China 4.
0 million, (I didn't even know the Chinese were in the war, pathetic I know- blame the school system), Germany 5.
5 million (this happens when you try to take over the world twice) and the Soviets lost over 10 million! That's soldiers.
During WWII of course there was a lot of genocide and "cleansing" going on.
5.
5 million Jews were murdered, more than the number of Germans lost in battle.
In total WWII claimed over 60 million lives, or 2.
5% of the worlds population.
Dwell on that number for a moment.
Then came Vietnam = 58,000 soldiers killed, (not a lot comparatively speaking, still sad I know), Korean War = 36,000 killed, Gulf War 323 killed (yup that's right), Iraq 4500 killed (same as the Revolutionary War).
Here's the thing, many of the afore mentioned wars were really us flexing our muscles and in many of these wars we didn't have a true blue opponent and even sadder in most cases we didn't have a formal plan, except maybe to win? The guys who fought in Vietnam would agree there was never a real plan; and today the solders who are putting it out there every day in Iraq and Afghanistan are in that same boat.
There is no argument that war is something that has to be done, in many cases a last resort or we're pulled in, like in WWII.
There is no question without the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and WWII America would not be America.
But the rest of our wars, Naw...
not really necessary.
If you add up all of the wars since the Revolutionary War, counting just soldiers, America lost in and around 645,000 soldiers.
I'm not sure on civilians the numbers are hard to ferret out.
All of our losses combined don't even come close to what France lost in WWI.
All of our battles and resources added up to less than half of the blood and treasure Russia lost in WWI.
Don't misunderstand, I hate communism, terrorists and dictators as much or more than the next guy.
This isn't about politics, this is about numbers...
and death.
Now some balance.
Right, wrong or indifferent war is a choice, at least to most, most of the time.
We get attacked, the game is on, but in all other situations we made the decision to go to war.
Deciding to go to war is a hard choice but still a choice.
The absolute exceptions I already mentioned, Revolutionary War, Civil War and WWII.
Then come the rest of the happy numbers.
Here are some other choices that cost American lives: Tobacco= 390,000 a year.
Alcohol= 80,000 a year.
Drugs 60,000 a year, (some say as low as 48k others say as high as 100k), Suicides 35,000 a year, give or take.
Death by someone else's hands (Murder) in 2012 16,238, of which 11,068 were by a firearm, (Humm...
) And last but not least, Abortion, the hot potato of all hot potatoes.
In the US last year there were 631,000 abortions, or the equivalent to the population of Boston.
Another weird comparison, the number of abortions last year is almost the exact number of souls that were lost in ALL of our wars combined! Crazy right? Okay, another side note; these are the numbers for the US; if you look at the worlds numbers, total Abortions last year was 23 Million.
Wow.
Oh I forgot, total number of Abortions in the US since we started tracking this info is 1.
3 Million.
Now I need you to play along, please put down your PC manual.
This is not about the women's rights movement, the right to choose movement, the right to life movement, the war haters, the drug lovers and haters, the gun lobbyists or anti-gun lobbyists, these are just numbers.
If the US didn't go to any of the wars except for the three already mentioned; if guns were never legal in the country; if drugs were not a part of society and if there were never any abortions, the US population would rise from just over 300 Million today to well over 700 Million, give or take 50 Million.
Some is simple math, other parts I had to make assumptions, like if all those babies were born and grew up, got married and had two (only two) children that would have had a major impact on our population numbers.
Then I had to deduct the number of people that might fall prey to one of the afore mentioned possible causes of early death and add back in the stats on length of life.
Which by the way for Americans is around 78.
It's important to also mention some categories where one does not or usually does not have a choice when it comes to death.
This is not the entire list, just some highlights.
Accidents, Death by Car 314,000 in 2012, (Side note.
The very first reports on this stat was in 1899, when there was 26 recorded deaths!), Sickness.
This was a surprise to me.
Number 1 in this category is Heart Disease 596,577 a year; Cancer 576,691 a year; Stroke & Respiratory diseases 271,000; Other accidents (like falling on a knife) 126,438; and the Flu 53,826.
So on average each year 1,869,311 Americans die from getting sick or an accident.
That is a big number.
It completely sucks, and is of course not fair.
I want to remind you I am only speaking of Americans.
Our numbers compared to the rest of the world...
a blip on the radar.
So we get down to it.
Death no matter when, where or how it comes, well...
sucks.
Only a few get to live out their lives and pass quietly in the night.
In the end this is what I wish for all.
The notion 'survival of the fittest' does not apply here in America anymore.
So is nature trying to help? Is this natures way of trying to keep our (and the worlds) population in check? Maybe, but I don't think so.
Not nearly enough people get struck by lightning to say nature is helping out.
Plus I already explained that most of the deaths in America come from choices, in America we still have those.
I personally know or lost someone in almost all the categories mentioned here today.
Would I like to have those people back, of course.
The pain that remains for the living is the hardest part about living.
My question to you is this.
Is all death a bad thing? I'm not talking about natural death, pain or loss, I'm talking about numbers.
Are we, as Americans better off with our population to some extent controlled? Our overall population still keeps growing, but if it wasn't for all of the factors mentioned here Americas population would be ridiculously high.
And then the population would grow even faster from year to year.
Is this a bad thing? If we were in fact at 700 Million folks today, in a matter of a few years the US would be at a Billion (Hello China!).
I think we more than have enough resources to handle a billion, (if we are good stewards) but here's the thing that scares me.
Right now close to half, if not half of our populous is on some form of government support.
Can you imagine if 500 Million were? Life as we know it in the US would be gone...
just saying.
War, guns, abortion, disease, accidents are all part of being an American, a human really.
Generally we can't do much if anything about it.
Wars are still going to happen, you will never get an American to give up their guns, we will never win the war on drugs, we can't stop accidents, and abortions will not be going away any time soon.
Facts, not numbers.
I too would like to live a long healthy life; I would like to check out on my terms, quietly and peacefully surrounded by family.
On a percentage bases you and I have about a 7-10% chance of that happening, depressing I know, sorry.
Oh, and that middle part, called your life? There is only one thing you need to understand.
Your life will, like nearly all other American will have highs and lows, it just will.
If you hit a particularly bad low, understand it will swing back and you will get back to being on a high.
Right about now is when I would be expected to say to you, 'Make every day your last!' or 'Live for today!' and all the other over used overly simplistic phrases about snapping ones self out of it; trying to convince you to make the most out of your life.
But maybe what we can do, is except the fact that death is real, one of the two facts of life.
No matter your position or status in life it will come for you too.
If you understand and except this fact, put it away, forget about it.
It's a crazy world, there are so many things to bring us down, don't let this be one of them.
In the end NONE of this will matter, least of all worrying about death.
So I guess I would leave you with this thought; Try as best you can as you go through your day, to only focus on the things that do matter...
to you, and live your life.
Death to Americans.
Not what you thought right? Dutch - http://www.
dutchjones.
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