The deaths of others : the fate of civilians in America's wars / John Tirman.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-401) and index.

Introduction: Death and remembrance in America's wars -- American wars and the culture of violence -- Strategic bombing in the Second World War -- The Korean War : the hegemony of forgetting -- The Vietnam War : the high cost of credibility -- The Reagan doctrine : savage war by proxy -- Iraq : the twenty years' war -- Afghanistan : hot pursuit on terrorism's frontier -- Three atrocities and the rules of engagement -- Counting : a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic -- The epistemology of war.

Americans are concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle : 100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; over 1,000 in Afghanistan. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This question John Tirman answers in The Deaths of Others. Tirman argues that if we want to understand why there is so much anti-Americanism around the world, the first place to look is how we conduct war. We strive to protect our own troops, but our rules of engagement with the enemy are another matter. From atomic weapons and carpet bombing in World War II to napalm and daisy cutters in Vietnam and beyond, we have used our weapons intentionally to kill large numbers of civilians and terrorize adversaries into surrender. Tirman investigates the history of casualties caused by American forces in order to explain why America remains so unpopular and why U.S. armed forces operate the way they do. This book forces readers to consider the tragic consequences of American military action--Publisher's description.