4,000 Deaths in Iraq. Let's put that in perspective.

Would you like to tell these parents their loved one was just a number ?

Appeal to emotion. My next door neighbor died in the twin towers. There was a news article recently about someone who backed up in the parking lot and killed a mother of several children who died pushing her children out of the way. What do you say to that? Forty four times more people died from automobiles than from Iraq. What do you say to their families? Crushed by a car or blown up by a bomb, death is still death and it is all horrid. But if you obsess about the one and not about the forty four then you are a hypocrite. Or it is easier to tell them (the U.S. military) what to do and not ourselves (the U.S. auto drivers, most of whom drive like a bat out of hell with no concern for anyone except their own selves).

My brother
I can not in good conscience agree with you on this.
Even if it were only one that one is more than a number or a statistic.
Chances are that this is a person who in full knowledge of the risk to his or her life and maybe believing in the eventual outcome as being a positive one for all concerned and believing that America is his homeland and loving our country decided to go to Iraq not so much for political or corperate America but for America as a whole. For his or her family and friends, neighbors, for you and me. Believing in the values of freedom and democracy that America holds so dear.
They left the homeland and there loved ones to go To a land far away to ensure not only that our freedom and security and our way of life would prevail but also to free others in Iraq from the evil of oppression and dictatorship. Yes Christopher these men and woman that have died in Iraq did it for you and I. For everyone of every race and creed living in America from the Redwood forests to the Gulfstream waters.
This in no way shape or form negates the pain caused by the fires and auto accidents and all the other unfortunate happenings that led to the other deaths that you speak of. They truly are important not only to the ones who are left behind to me as well.
In response to you comment about America being apathetic and unwilling to help the brave men and woman who have come back to us, I must say there does seem to be room for improvement but to sugjest that America is apathetic, uncaring and unwilling to provide for those who have made the sacrafice of thier time and efforts for our country is not fully a truth.
Wether it be 2000 4000 6000 or yes even one it is a significant number.
To all the brave men and woman living or dead active or retired I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
With all due respect to you and to your point of view Christopher I could be wrong this is simply my opinion.
God bless The U.S.A.

Another appeal to emotion; I hate to break the bad news to you but dead is dead. More over the snide remarks about our men in the military are not helping your argument. Our brave men and women are not deliberately trying to kill innocents. Nor are they "dying" for lies. The war may have been started based on "lies" but that is long over, "mission accomplished" as the banner said. This "war" is now on fixing the mess that President Bush made. The argument is equivalent to looking at the learning problems of a five year old child and arguing that we should just kill the kid because he was a product of rape. We could adopt a policy once promoted by a Mr. Scrooge, "let them die and thus decrease the surplus population." After all we made the mess, why should we be responsible?

The death of any member of the armed forces is a tragic event, but they, as all men and women who put their lives on the line every day, do so willingly. Our first responsibility is to ensure the protection of these men and women. Our second responsibility is the lives of those people in Iraq we forever messed up, even if they don't particularly like us for messing up their lives in the first place. But that begs the question. Why are we so fixated on an even number? Why are we so concerned about those who willingly risk their lives when we couldn't even care less about those around us who die every day who weren't putting their lives on the line for their country?

Now "I'm" murdering people? Oh the wonderful art of rhetoric. But if you really want to count "innocent" deaths, I'm from New York, the abortion capitol of the United States. Those numbers would boggle the mind. Nationwide, it's not a thousand a year; it's over a million every year! Back in 1996 when the nation had 1,365,730 abortions (don't blame me for the old date, getting decent reporting on these numbers takes a lot of time) my state had 152,991 of them. (California actually beat us that year with 280,180 and a per thousand figure of 39 compared to our 37 but they are the land of fruits and nuts and we had a Republican governor at the time, George Pataki.)

This comment is to let you know that this content has reached ten comments, and as such has been removed from Comment Speedway! Congratulations!