And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
—Rev. 14:20
7178 Casualties Since 20th Century
At the twenty-first session of the International Congress of the Red Cross, Sept. 6, 1969, it was reported that more than 90 million people had been killed in wars since the twentieth century began; 2 trillion dollars reportedly had been spent on armaments; 130 conflicts on 5 continents had been waged.
7179 Deaths Within Recorded History
Within the time of authentic history war has claimed the lives of fifteen thousand millions! What a pyramid of skulls their fleshless heads would make!
—Governor Hanley
7180 Escalating Costs In Lives
Julius Caesar extended the Roman Empire from the Euphrates in Persia to England’s Thames with an army of 400,000. The Napoleonic wars covered all Europe except England, Western Asia and North Africa, yet he had only 750,000 men.
During World War I, one out of 7 men on earth during 1914–18 were in uniform, totaling 53 million. It is estimated that 13 million were killed. Those killed in blockages, revolutions, and sunken or shipwrecked boats came to a staggering total of 37 million. The financial cost of WW I has been placed in excess of $337 billion dollars, which in that day exceeded by 1/3 the estimated wealth of the United States.
7181 Annihilating Statistics
What Emil Ludwig calls “annihilating statistics,” he presents in the following ghastly summary of World War I: “Ten million men killed. A parade of these dead men, marching ten abreast from sunrise to sunset, with a new rank passing every two seconds, would take forty-six days to pass by a given spot! To this number should be added 13,000,000 missing. There were also 10,000,000 refugees and 6,000,000 children who had lost their fathers. The daily loss of human life amounted to 16,585. The cost of the war came to a total of $338,000,000,000—in other words, $20,000 for every hour since the birth of Christ. The war itself cost $9,000,000 an hour to wage. In those four years, Europe lost all savings it had accumulated during a century!”
7182 Bloodiest War
By far the most costly war in terms of human life was World War II (1939–45), in which the total number of fatalities, including battle deaths and civilians of all countries, is estimated to have been 54,800,000, assuming 25,000,000 U.S.S.R. fatalities and 7,800,000 Chinese civilians killed. The country which suffered most was Poland with 6,028,000 or 22.2 percent of her population of 27,007,000 killed.
7183 Now: Overkill
In the 1960s military strategists spoke of “total kill” which meant the capacity to kill every living thing on earth. Now they talk of “over kill” which is the capability to kill more than the entire population of earth.
7184 U.S.-Russia War Results
Even if the Soviets launched a preemptive strike, the U.S. would still be able to mount a counterattack that would lay waste much of the Soviet Union.
“The casualties would, however, be beyond belief: 100 million dead Americans, 100 million dead Russians.”
Strategists in London as well as in Washington believe that the war would probably be won by the U.S.—insofar as winning would any longer have meaning.
—Time
7185 Epigram On War (Casualties)
• Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
—Duke of Wellington
• When Pyrrhus was congratulated on his victory over the Romans at Asculum, he made the memorable reply, his losses being so great, “Such another victory and we are undone.”
See also: Deaths ; Rev. 6:8; 9:18.