Hardly. Afghanistan was, and is, a pinprick prepared with both resources committed to and lives lost in Vietnam and the US was still a superpower after that.
Sadly you are correct. I say sadly because it is an example of just how calloused we have become over war loses. When I look at the USA war loses that occurred in my lifetime, the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan has been insignificant in terms of American cost. The
first day of the Normandy Landing in WW2 was considerably more expensive than the total cost for both Iraq and Afghanistan has been to date. Vietnam has been our most costly recent conflict, yet it was negligible when compared to our own civil war of 1860-1865.
While even the loss of one life is too high of a price, the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan is probably the least expensive conflict the USA has ever been involved in.
Sadly, because we have become calloused we have trouble in understanding that while it has been low budget in terms of military cost, it may be the most expensive in terms of innocent lives lost.
Roughly 5000 USA troops have been killed in ten years of Afghanistan during this same time period at least 400,000 Americans were killed in automobile accidents in the USA. If Just 10% of them were American Soldiers that means 40,000 soldiers died in car accidents during those 10 years, or another way is to say an American soldier is 8 times more likely to be killed in a Car Accident in the USA than to be killed in combat in Afghanistan. A US Serviceman is safer in Afghanistan than on the roads of America.
I don't think enough Americans are aware of how many innocent lives Afghanistan has cost, because it's price has been very minute in terms of the US military budget and past costs of war.
The majority of Americans have not been affected by Afghanistan and the majority do not personally know even one person who has died in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has not had any personal impact on most Americans.
