D:\afif\handy_cam\mahdi.jpg I just notice 16th of December may remembered as Iraq’s victory day also as officially US force end its mission in Iraq on 15th of December, 2011! So I thought why not a comparison between these two wars as both of them fought against a foreign invasion and general peoples of both of them suffer a lot. There is also one reason to refute some claims related to BD independence propagate by some Indian and Pakistani think tanks that “Without Indian army’s land incursion Bangladesh would not get independent” (I think some of BD people also feel uneasy about it, and show less confidence on our freedom fighter ). So here we begin – 1. Pakistan vs US – Though they act similarly by invading a land where people don’t ask for it but there is no comparison between US and Pakistan in terms of military, or economical(long term that’s matter most ) power. When Pakistan invade Bangladesh they even don’t have enough air force, nuclear capability still 3 decades away where as US is the mightiest army in human history 2. Number of soldiers – In peak time US had 170,000 which is almost double the number of Pak army in 71 was 90,368. Here is one more fact, there were total 1.5 millions of US soldiers participate in rotation where as Pak army don’t have much rotation except for some top level post, which suggest a very tired army at the end of the war (December, 71) 3. Civilian causalities – official estimate suggest around 601,027(Lancet survey, up to 2006) to 125,00(iraqbodycount.org) Iraqi civilian died during this war. We should also add death due to sanctions from 1990(started after first gulf war) which range from 170,000 to over 1.5 million (most of them are children).For Bangladesh the estimated range falls between 1 million to 3 millions. 4. Military causalities of defending country- There is an estimated 45,000 dead among troops and paramilitaries of Iraqi forces during 2003 invasion(Saddam’s military), there are more in new military created by US and new Iraq government. There are 3900 Indian soldiers died, no clear result of Mukti bahini’s death which may included in over all genocide(Please forward this information if you have). 5. Military causalities of invader army – 4802 (include US, UK and other forces where US force count 4484). Unfortunately I don’t find any exact for pak army even not mentioned in Pakistan militaries web site. 6. Population of the country while invaded – Bangladesh 75 million, Iraq 30 millions 7. Internal situation – Though there was small group of traitor knows as rajakar supported Pakistani army but overwhelmingly Bengali peoples support the freedom fighters. Whereas in Iraq US manipulate the sectarian division which makes the insurgency bloody but ultimately all Iraqis showed they want to get rid of the invaders. 8. Supporting countries (allies) in invasion– US able to make some allies like UK, Italy, Poland, Ukraine etc, total 37 countries take part in the invasion though very few of them stay after internal pressure from their population. Whereas Pakistan don’t had any troops support but got fund and arms from US, China and may be some financial support from Middle East countries. 9. Supporting countries with the liberation forces – Indian and Russia mainly help to train freedom fighter and provide arms, rest of the supply inside the country like food provided by ordinary people. There is no official sponsor of Iraq insurgency though US claimed that Iran play an important role to organized and support shiti militia, basically the whole insurgency was supported by a wave of young zihidist coming across from all over the middle east (Saudi Arabia, Libya, Jordan) in US terms – Al Qaida in Iraq. 10. Winners – in Bangladesh case it takes nine months to defeat Pak army which was decisive, in Iraq US able to save it face through some political maneuver but ultimately they had to leave which was the primary reason for insurgency, so ultimately Iraq won and US lose decisively. It’s now obvious that with its super mighty army US did not able to tame an insurgency and the liberation war by the Iraqi people. Now I will call those think tanks(should called potka) patently stupid who thinks that Pak army would survive and win against mukti bahini if India not intervened. I think there was a influence of Indianan in 71 war in terms of outcome and that was they saved the life of Pak army else most of those tired soldiers would died within next 6 months. War is not an easy business and without the support of the native people any modern war is unsustainable. US become almost bankrupt and Pakistan was imploded that time. Finally there was one important historical fact ignored by our historians & columnist - that our freedom fighters, (Mukti bahini) also saved Bangladesh from Indian incursion. There was a great chance India would stay or minimum establish a military base in 71, if we don’t have a large number of war trained freedom fighters who would be hostile if they saw that treason. What Indian did to sikim could happened to us,- to tame some internal political conflicts in sikim , Indian reserve police were moved in and took control of the streets of Gangtok(capital of sikim) and sealed the whole country for several years, Later it became a part of India. I think there should be scholarly work need to be done on this issue. So our freedom fighter wins two battle one against Pakistan win our sovereignty and decisively protect our sovereignty from India. Salute you guys!!