5,976

[unhappycamper]

http://icasualties.org/

That's the current number of American service members put into the grave courtesy of dubya and Mr. Obama.

That number does not reflect the number of families torn apart.

That number does not reflect the number of children who will never see their mother or father again. Ever.

That number does not reflect the number of horribly injured veterans.

That number does not reflect the economic costs of continuing these insane occupations.

[hobbit709]

1. That's about 5977 too many just to enrich the corporations.

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[Jeanette in FL]

3. K & R'd

How freaking sad.

Thanks for the sad reminder.

[Keith Bee]

4. I thought that was the Hebew calendar year

Truly disheartening. Recced.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. "Make no mistake: it's a number

A uniquely American adult bipartisan number. "

[Buzz Clik]

6. You're the last person I would have expected to keep an anonymous death count.

I kinda get the rabid anti-war crowd who have never spent a moment in or near the military doing this -- dehumanizing those who make the ultimate sacrifice. But you?

Yeah, I oppose our involvement there, too.

[northernlights]

7. keeping a tallie of the lives and families destroyed is hardly dehumanizing

If you want dehumanizing, how about not even bothering to keep track of the number of lives we've destroyed with our endless wars? How many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanies, Pakistanis, Yemenis, and wherever else we've targeted since 2001?

[Buzz Clik]

8. These people have names. Using them as a simple number in a political agenda is dehumanizing.

I will not support that.

[northernlights]

9. we'll just have to agree to disagree

If the poster had used the number as a statistic, and especially if they had referred to the people as "troops," I could see your point.

But he or she didn't. The post was carefully framed as the number of people who have lost their lives, referred to the families destroyed. Idon't expect somebody posting on the internet to keep track of and list the names of everybody killed, or of everybody whose family was destroyed by our wars.

Taking your approach to its logical endpoint, would listing names be enough? To ensure each death was appropriately represented, should it include a bio, details of their deaths, loved ones left behind, and so on?

[Enthusiast]

12. PLUS ONE!

Actually, keeping a tally is humanizing.

[Exilednight]

16. Broadbrush much?

"I kinda get the rabid anti-war crowd who have never spent a moment in or near the military doing this"

I'm part of the rabid anti-war crowd, and I served in Iraq. I find it disgusting that you are willing to throw away opinions because of your preconceived notions about those that are anti-war. The fastest way to become anti-war is to be human and fight one.

[crickets]

10. K&R

[Enthusiast]

11. Afghanistan is counterproductive.

It is not helping the terrorist threat in any way. Continuing the Afghan War is fully as stupid as, "We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here."

[yellowwood]

13. Thank you for the reminder

I "found" DU during the runup to the Iraq conflict. There seemed to be a lot of interest in averting that conflict.

Lately, I see little interest in the military activities of our country anywhere.

These horrific conflicts just go on and on.

Our people die. The people in the other country die.

Maybe people are just overwhelmed by all the problems in the world. They get discouraged over whether they can do anything about them.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[wildbilln864]

15. k&r! nt

[Exilednight]

17. can't recommend, but here's a kick. everyone should see this.

[zorahopkins]

18. Number Is Much Higher

This is a terrible number.

But the actual number of lives lost in the illegal and immoral American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya is much higher if you count the Iraqi, Afghani, and Libya lives lost.

[wildbilln864]

19. k & r again. nt