A Brief History

source:http://www.documentingreality.com

      War is and will always be a dangerous and frighting thing that is inevitable in our society, but i am grateful for the technology that has changed the battlefield and brought the number of soldiers killed in battle drastically down. Less than 100 years ago during WWI when technology was minimal and man power was plentaful the casualties of war were much much higher. It is estimated that nearly 117,465 American soldiers and civilians were killed in World War I over the course of the 3 years that the United States was involved. In modern war where technology is much greater, such as the War on Terror, the casualties have been much lower. Even including the people who who died on 9/11 the casualty number for the War on Terror to date is approximately 8,800 over the course of 10 years. Whether this dramatic decrease in war causalities is due to technological advancements is up for debate, although technology is one of the only changes that have been made to the incredibly traditional U.S. armed forces.
      The amount of casualties during WWI may be attributed to the military strategies of the era. One particularly dangerous strategy was the way that the battle lines communicated with one another. During battle, a few soldiers were designated as "runners". these runners would run or ride a horse back and forth along the lines to receive and transmit messages from soldier to soldier. To be a "runner" was a job no soldier wanted for the odds of making it off the battlefield became much slimmer. In today's war fare the risky job of a messenger has been eliminated with the creation of satellite radios.
      Although it is pretty widely known that a vast majority of the deaths that occurred in WWI were due to the conditions of the battlefield and trench warfare, this to can be connected to the development of technology. With the creation of technology the way that wars are fought has changed and  trench warfare has become obsolete. War today is fought almost entirely if not completely with the use of modern technology. from the radios on their hips, to the guns in there hands and the vehicles they ride in technology is a major player in the way soldiers communicate and handle situations in conflict today.