Word comes today from the New York Times that the death toll has reached 4,000 among American soldiers in Iraq. It is not a number that boggles the mind. After the bloodletting of the 20th Century we are accustomed to seeing death tolls in 7 figures or more.
I knew 3 of them. Or rather I met them after they died, covering their funerals. The first was early, but the family turned against the war. The second and third were later, in the third year of the war. The families of each supported the war. They were proud of their dead sons. That is the elephant everyone is tiptoeing around. The survivors must support the war totally. Anything less than a belief that weapons of mass destruction will eventually be found means their loved ones died for nothing. They cannot yet accept that fact, the fact that the lives they hold so dear mean nothing to the men that are running this country right now.
Much will be written of this milestone. Little will be worth reading. But I'd like to have an answer to this question: What has happened in Iraq that is worth a single one of their lives?
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