Dave Hall wrote:
How many "innocents" died in WWII?

About 30 million. Of course, that includes a lot of Soviet citizens who
were deliberately starved to death by policies of Josep Stalin, but a
good accounting can be given here

http://gi.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_16.html

Oh wait, I better ask first... is Grolier's Encyclopedia considered a
source of libby-rull propaganda?


... Should the fact that innocents
often die in war, deter us from the greater common good?

What "greater good" are you talking about? In WW2 we were fighting a
declared war against nation-states. Civilian casualties were a
regrettable strategic necessity, once the imperative of destroying enemy
industries was established. Many people still do not accept it as axiomatic.

In this case, we invaded & occupied a sovereign nation for no logical
reason and with no serious justification... and in the course of that
war our military inadvertently killed over 10,000 civilians. It did
little or nothing to hasten the defeat of enemy armed forces. There was
little or no enemy industry to destroy, indeed we wanted to preserve the
most important (oil) so as to grab it quickly.

Iraqi civilian deaths are a fact that the Bush/Cheney Cheerleaders will
not ever accept, but true nonetheless. Unfortunately this will influence
history for a long time to come.

DSK