The Media And The Macabre.

It has become a little disconcerting, this glee the media seems to feel at reporting milestones in the current wars we wage. Last week, it was widely reported that the number of soldiers killed in the War On Terror had exceeded the number of people killed on 9-11, a figure completely irrelevant because we are fighting to prevent the next attack, not to avenge the last one. Now, less than a week later, all of the large newspapers have headlines screaming that deaths in Iraq have surpassed 3000. Why this is more relevant than when soldier number 2,974 died is beyond me, but whatever.

It is time that all of this is put into a little perspective. In the same amount of time that 3000 soldiers died, 120,000 Americans died in auto accidents. 500 police officers were killed in the line of duty (should we pull them off the streets because of that fact?).

This article in Time makes just the right point about how we should react to these casualty figures:

The public's contemplation of the number should have little to do with the right or the wrong of American occupation, nor with the viability of that seed of peace America is meant to be sowing there.

Exactly. If Iraq is a mistake, we should find our way out. If it is the right thing to do, we should stay and finish what we started. It is not news to anyone that people get killed and wounded in war, or that families across this nation are grieving over fallen and wounded soldiers, and no one takes this lightly. But that is the reality of war. These casualty figures are extremely low by historical standards, and should have no influence on our deliberations over the Iraq war.