The death watch

I tuned in to the middle of this when I got in my car this morning. It's the story of two mothers who lost sons in the Iraq War. By the time the interviewer got to Mom #2, Nan Byrd, mother of Marine Lance Cpl. John Byrd II, even he the grace to pause when he asked the $64,000 question: "Do you feel that your family's sacrifi ... sacrifice was wor ... worth it?"

Today's 2,000 Dead Day in the MSM. The Today Show was just cranking their coverage up when I left the house.

What's so significant about 2,000? You got me. But while reading and listening to news reports for the past week, it was evident that 2,000 represented some sort of milestone to the media.

James J. Na has some thoughts.

There was no talk of a "quagmire" as thousands of American died on the beaches of Normandy in one day and as thousands more died in the jungles of the Pacific, facing suicide attacks from a fanatical foe. No one was accused of hyped intelligence when the actual German atomic weapons program turned out to be substantially less advanced than estimated. Instead, the families of the Greatest Generation, already having survived a crippling Depression, quietly endured the deaths and supported the military endeavors to defend American interests and to extend the boundaries of freedom.

Today the news-hungry media reports each death in an agonizing, repetitive fashion. One learns of a death in the morning newspapers, hears about it on radio on the way to work, sees it on CNN during lunch time, and the cycle repeats itself for few more hours in the evening, capped by a special on Nightline. The effect is that the impact of each death is sensationally and numbingly magnified without any reference to the contexts, such as toppling a murderous dictatorship, defeating a sponsor of terrorism and bringing freedom to an oppressed people.

This is not to imply that the American deaths in the current war are less tragic. On the contrary, every one of the sacrifices in Iraq was a noble, meaningful one, suffered by an all-volunteer force that needed no draft, no compulsion to fight for our nation. In the end, what is important to recognize, and what these historical numbers demonstrate, is that it is fully within our historical legacy to carry on the struggle to protect our interests and to extend the boundaries of freedom, all in quiet dignity without losing our faith and determination to be victorious.

Via INDC Bill, who notes the glee with which the Washington Post Express reports on the 2,000 dead.

[A] huge, color, semi-fish-eye perspective graphic of a line of American memorials in Iraq (boots, rifle, helmet) with the reverse bolded 60+ point type "2,000 DEAD" to celebrate report the grim, round number of the latest casualties from the two-and-a-half year old conflict.

For a historic perspective, here's the Congressional Research Service's report American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, which covers every military operation since the Revolutionary War.