One hundred and seventy years ago Great Britain joined France and Turkey in a two and a half year war with Russia. The Crimean War was over the eventual control over the Black Sea port of Sevastopol and the rest of the Crimean peninsula.
For their trouble, the Brits suffered 44,000 casualties (i.e. killed in action, died later of wounds, died of disease/infections/pneumonia/influenza, missing, and wounded). The population of Great Britain in 1850 was approximately 18 million inhabitants. Or, in terms of casualties to its total population, the British losses were approximately a ratio of 1:409. Notably, these casualty figures were the result of crude nineteenth century tactics and weaponry, but also due to the primitive medical methods & poor field hygiene of the time.
Using only the British casualty to population ratio for America today (ie. 330 million/409), would give us a potential casualty number of 806,846 which again, relies upon 19th century technologies to come to that number. It does not calculate the potential damage done by intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear warheads, atomic submarines, bombers, etc.
Long story short, and for a cup of coffee first prize: Who can now remember the cause of the original Crimean War, much less who can recall which side may have actually won?
Lastly, is anyone still anxious for Americans to go play in this backwater part of the world? Or, would they prefer that we first try to revisit the wisdom of ever getting involved in this particular historical place?
