The Russians defeated the Germans by throwing wave after wave of troops at them, not caring how many were killed, until the Germans were overwhelmed. We have criticized Stalin and his generals for that ever since, yet in some ways, we did the same, if only on a smaller scale. Iwo Jima was not the only island upon which American lives may have been needlessly thrown away.
I have read as much of the history of WW2 as I could for the past 60 years or so. That includes many, many books, a lot of which make light of the conflict between and Army and Navy, as to who should be in charge in the Pacific. I think it can be said with a certain amount of certainty, that many American lives were lost as a result/
