Casualties of War

Senator Hiram Warren Johnson supposedly said in 1918, "The first casualty when war comes is truth." I disagree, truth may be the second casualty, but truly the first casualty is loved ones. Friends, family, brothers, sisters, uncles, wives, husbands, children, parents, and so on. With each statistic I read about about the death of a soldier I think about all the people who must have known and truly loved that person, and what a horrible thing it is to lose someone.

The New York Times is amazing. It is extremely heart wrenching.

This is a look at the real cost of "Operation Iraqi Liberation" (OIL), er, I mean "Operation Iraqi Freedom" (OIF). It is a constantly updating chart showing the deaths by each military branch, and a look at each individual fallen soldier. You can even search by last name, state, or hometown of a United States service member who has died in Iraq.

Update:
Professor showed today in class that the LA Times has made a very similar thing, but only with the deceased from California, and they have written obituaries.
It is called California's War Dead and it includes everyone who has died in the Iraq and Afghanistan War since 2001.

I don't mean to sound like a hippie but I would think that this sort of thing would show people that war is not the answer, that diplomacy and discussion does not include as many deaths.