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Return to Article: The Fallen: A profile of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan

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  This blatantly political diatribe is more appropriate to the New York Times (or Michael Moore) than to GovExec.com. You risk the respect that your publication has won by engaging in such an obvious political activity... especially in an election year.

  Jim Howard Posted July 23, 2004 7:46 PM
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  Excellent fixes to the myths involving Thermopylae.

  I don't believe that the oath taken by military personnel, and civilian federal employees, talks about protecting the United States against ALL those who would destroy our way of life. It talks about protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States. A living document that has been mangled not by those out to destroy the United States but by those who would preserve the US at any cost- including that Democracy so despised by the two Spartan Kings.

  GovExec.com reader Posted June 2, 2004 8:10 AM
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  That's a bad translation of the epigraph. In the original Greek, it reads "''O xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti t de/ ''keimetha tois keinon rh masi peithomenoi!" A more apt translation reads:

  Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by That here obedient to their laws we lie.

  Also, the number of Greek participants & dead is WAY off the mark. There were 300 full Spartiates (Homoioi) soldiers + 900 Helots (Messenian slaves). In addition, there was a coalition of Greek soldiers: Thebans, Thespians, Phocians & several other contingents from Greek city states. No Athenians participated as Athens was in the process of evacuating her denizens to Salamis at the time.

  The total number of Greek hoplites at Thermopylae was between 7,000-8,000. Exact estimates are hard to come by. The Spartans, Helots & Thespians died to a last man, while the rest were dismissed by the Spartan king Leonidas on the morning of the third day. These hoplites retreated & lived to fight another day. Most scholars put the Greek casualties as amounting to AT LEAST 2,000. That is a conservative calculation - there were probably significantly more.

  DSR

  David Posted June 1, 2004 12:00 PM
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  While I find the article most interesting, it also slants the issue. I deplore the deaths of so many soliders, sailors, marines and airman, but there is no mention of why we are there in first place. American was attacked! When I swore my oath, it was to protect this country. Each and everyone of those who have died swore this same oath. Those who have and are dying in Iraq, Afganistan, and all the other unnamed places swore the oath to protect the United States against all those who would destroy our way of life. Let us not forget that! Without that sacrifice, liberty and freedom will be lost. Let us not forget those who have paid the ultimate price, but let us also not forget why they paid it.

  Jimmie Grimes, CW3 USA Retired Posted May 31, 2004 10:47 PM