Comparing the Wars

World War 2 Statistics



War on Terrorism
Iraq War

Comparison	WWII	Iraq war
Congressional Medal of Honor recipients	464	1{+1}
Number of armed forces personnel who have served	16.1 million	1.4 million{+5}
Number of U.S. troop deaths	405,399	2,866{+2}
Number of U.S. troops wounded	671,846	21,778{+2}
Total deaths	54.8 million	n.a.
Cost of war (in 2006 dollars)	$3.6 trillion	$536 billion{+3}
Number of Americans drafted	11.5 million	0
Number of American volunteers	6.3 million	1.4 million
Number of women who have served	350,000	155,221
African-Americans who have served {+4}	1.2 million	238,757
Hispanic Americans who have served	250,000-500,000	135,104

1. President Bush announced Nov. 10 that there will be a second Medal of Honor recipient from the Iraq war.
2. As of Nov. 22.
3. Includes Afghanistan conflict.
4. figures for all minorities not available for World War II.
5. Figure includes troops serving in Afghanistan conflict

Sources: Census Bureau, Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Department of Defense, GlobalSecurity.org, Multinational Force-Iraq and National World War II Museum; Reporting by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

Comparing the two wars, I have discovered that the current war in Iraq is now going on longer then WWII and it still hasnt reached any of the numbers that WWII produced. In every item WWII has a lot more injures and deaths and metals won. Although the current war has been going on longer, I believe that they are just taking there time and being careful. World War II needed to be done as quickly as possible which is why the numbers are so high.