American military deaths in Iraq hit 4,000
On the heels of the Iraq war's fifth anniversary comes another somewhat arbitrary but far more grim milestone: 4,000 American soldiers have now died in the conflict, though casualties have been low so far this year. The editorial board didn't remark on the death toll when it hit 2,000 (in October 2005) or 3,000 (at the end of 2006), even though those points coincided with some other big events -- the ratification of a draft constitution and Saddam Hussein's execution.
The board did write when the death toll hit 1,000, highlighting the randomness of marking a number of dead (sorry, no link):
Six U.S. soldiers were killed, two Italian aid workers were kidnapped and warplanes bombed a Sunni enclave in Fallouja, a city mostly off-limits to coalition troops. It was just another day in the war Tuesday, except for the numbers. By this morning, Iraq time, the Associated Press count of casualties stated that 1,000 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq, aside from more than 100 other coalition soldiers and thousands of Iraqi noncombatants. And many thousands more have been wounded.
It is an obvious point at which to ask: To what end are U.S. personnel continuing to die? What is it that commanders should tell their troops as they head into lethal streets?
The board noted another, less round number in January...
As of Wednesday, 3,915 U.S. service members had been killed in Iraq. You may not have heard about this, because it isn't a nice, round, milestone-type figure -- unlike, say, 2,000, a number that inspired headlines across the country when that body count was reached in 2005.
And later in the same piece, the board offered a hint as to why milestones like this matter:
You also may not have heard that 2007 was the deadliest year yet for U.S. troops in Iraq: 899 lost their lives, surpassing the previous high of 850 in 2004.... The Tyndall Report, which monitors network news broadcasts, shows that less time was devoted to Iraq coverage in 2007 than in any previous year of the conflict.
No milestone, no moment of mass media reflection. For some powerful responses to this latest milestone, see Times' reporters recollections of the war dead.
America should be disgusted at the Bush / Cheney adminstration and they should be disgusted at all Republicans and those who were in favor of this illegal unconstitutional war. Each American and Iraqi death is one that has nothing to do wth protecting and serving America, making Americans safer from terrorists, or making Iraqi people free. Our troops were all used by the bush administration for political gain and that is all their deaths were for. Bush & Cheney misused and abused our nation’s military and the deaths of our soldiers means nothing to these spineless Republican chicken hawks who are in favor of waging war from afar as long as it is someone elses children who have to fight it and die in it. And don’t fool yourself America…just because John McCain was a prisoner of war, that does not qualify him to lead this nation in any military fashion. It simply qualifies him to be a prisoner of war and nothing more. The blood of every dead and wounded American and Iraqi is and will always be on the hands of Bush, Cheney and all Republicans who were for this war and all Democrats who were stupid enough to be duped into supporting this Republican war of greed. The only real beneficiaries of the Bush / Cheney Republican war in Iraq are the oil companies, Haliburton and various contractors like Blackwater. The real losers are our troops, the USA and the Iraqi people.
Posted by: john | March 25, 2008 at 07:35 AM
Red, White and Blue..these colors never run!
God bless the US military!
Posted by: Steve Rodriguez | March 26, 2008 at 02:58 PM