Playing The Numbers Game in Iraq - Let’s Do The Math--even as we shop.

[rodeodance]

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0129-29.htm

Published on Monday, January 29, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
Playing The Numbers Game in Iraq - Let’s Do The Math
by Jane Bright

Numbers mean a lot these days. Every morning we read or hear the numbers – the number of Iraqis killed in car bombs, the number of bodies found floating in the Tigris, the number of beheaded Iraqis found in Baghdad alleyways. Daily we can go online and read the latest troop deaths, arguably moving up to 3,400 coalition troops, nearly 3,100 of them Americans.

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Every Sunday I read the obituaries of military personnel reported killed by the Department of Defense for the prior week. It is painful to do this. Sunday, January 28 there were 40 obituaries. This act of tribute to the Americans killed makes me think about my own loss and remember what it felt like in the first hours, days and weeks after my son was killed. My heart hurts for the families. I do it because we must remember the dead and I’m not sure Americans are aware that people are dying daily in Iraq, otherwise we would stop the madness.

I’m afraid we’re not thinking about the ruin we have brought to Iraq. I’m afraid that in the end all the Iraqis we have killed and maimed, all the soldiers, marines, airmen and seamen we have caused to be killed and maimed will be simply numbers – part of the mathematical equations of war. Statistics.

The very least we can do is remember with humanity and respect the faceless, nameless Iraqis on whom we have declared war for no apparent reason and upon whom we have rained terror and death. The least we can do is keep alive in our hearts and in our minds the dead Americans whose names we will see in print each week, then probably forget as we head out to the mall.