Iraq’s Toll
March 26th, 2008 by 2CDC
(Editorial, Phila Inquirer, 3/25, p. A10)
Why?
What’s in a number?
Late Sunday, the U.S. death toll in the Iraq war rose to 4,000. The milestone was reached when four soldiers died in Baghdad after their vehicle hit a hidden bomb. Such is the numbing toll this needless war has taken.
But what does it mean to have lost 4,000 people in an undeclared war, now five years old? There are many ways to spin a number. Some compare the death toll with those of other wars the United States has fought.
Iraq can’t compare with the carnage of the Civil War (more than 563,000 in almost four years) or the Second World War (more than 400,000 in even less time).
However, more U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq than in the War of 1812, or in the Spanish-American War (2,260 and 2,440, respectively).
In Afghanistan (where al-Qaeda and the Taliban really are), the death toll is fewer than 750.
Here’s the real question: Did there have to be any deaths in Iraq? Read the rest of this entry »
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