Iraq Death Toll Revisited

This article is submitted in response to Content Producer Leo Siren’s submission, The United States Death Toll in Iraq is Not a Number to Be Ignored.

I must admit, I have never been so offended by anything published on the Associated Content site as I was by Mr. Siren’s response to my article, Our Dead are Not Milestones. I was so filled with anger that I had to let a considerable amount of time pass before sitting down to pen my response to his article.

He claims that I make a “…severe and offensive oversight…” and that my argument is “…that we shouldn’t talk about how many people have died in the ‘war on terror’ because each life is individually important; we shouldn’t think of casualty counts like 2,500 as being significant, because each death is significant—not just the 2,500th.”

Leo, you missed the point entirely. To begin, I never said we shouldn’t talk about how many people have died in the war on terror. Of course we should. What I did argue was that an extreme focus on the total number of casualties detracts from the individuality represented by each number. I firmly believe that and stand by that statement.

What really offends me, though, is when the implication is made that I, because I am a conservative, “…would love for everybody to forget how many of our friends and family members are dying….”

How dare you, Mr. Siren. I have spent sixteen months of my life in that godforsaken desert called Iraq. I was there, in person, to deal with the loss of my friends and fellow soldiers. I was there, in person, to see people so dear to me that I consider them family, bleed and die on the roads and in the cities of that country. Where were you, Mr. Siren? Where do you get off speculating that I do not want their deaths and injuries discussed so that I can further my “…conservative pro-war agenda?”

You, sir, have no idea what you are talking about. To even suggest, as you do, that I am disrespecting the deaths of my fellow soldiers is ridiculous and deeply offensive.