It isn't just the immediate dead
It's also all the people who are affected by the soldier's deaths,
both directly and as a fallout effect.
So how many dead would you consider to be "effective"? Ten to
twenty million dead, tops, right?
Reminds me of how Stalin and Mao killed tens of millions of their
own people for their great national and cultural "causes".
But let me guess, we've got more people than ever on the planet
now, so obviously a few million popped off here and there doesn't
really matter in the end. It's quantity, not quality, right?