As I roam about the internet, I am often confronted with macabre counters that enumerate the deaths in the Iraq war. Though well intentioned, those counters miss several major points.

As Brad pointed out, the number (2037, according to the most recent list I checked) is over 2 1/2 years since war was declared in Iraq. And, while the death of EVERY soldier matters, it must be placed in context. 6603 American troops lost their lives on a SINGLE DAY on June 6, 1944 (D-Day)...important because we were ALSO involved in a foreign conflict opposed by a strong contingent of US protestors who felt we had no business being there (don't believe me? Google "America First" sometime, an organization that counted no less than Charles Lindbergh among its leaders). 3650 Union soldiers died in a single day at Antietam. 3100 Union soldiers (estimated) in a single day at Gettysburg (for the sake of the Civil War, I only included Union casualties, not out of disrespect for the Confederate deaths but as a buffer to those detractors who would bemoan the fact that my Civil War death count included deaths on BOTH SIDES of the line).

But those numbers, while important to me, pale when compared to another MORE important statistic that doesn't matter to the liberals, a point made by a conservative talk radio host (don't remember which one). The host asked his liberal callers repeatedly to tell him how many had died in Afghanistan. NOt one of them could.

Now, mind you, MOST of these liberals claim to be pacifists. They claim to be against the war, and that we are at war for oil. Afghanistan stands ignored as it is a fly in their ointment, a point at which most of their spurious arguments begin to unravel. It also is an embarassing sticking point as the casualty count (244, for all you numbers geeks) is too low to afford them the dramatic impact of a number that exceeds the number of years since Christ's arrival on this earth.

Add to that the fact that the number includes the TOTAL casualty count, which is just over 400 more than the COMBAT death count of 1634, and thus is irresponsibly inflated. The number 2037 represents TOTAL US troop deaths, which probably includes a couple cases of "Mohammed's revenge" from some bad Kurdish takeout.

I stand united with many Americans in desperately longing to see the day when all of our American troops come home. But I want them to come home as the heroes they ARE, and not the "babykillers" the antiwar movement is fast making them out to be.

And I believe EVERY deaths counts, but that counting numbers is a shameful attempt to manipulate public opinion through irresponsible reporting. Just as numbers related to chickenpox deaths (to sell guess what? chickenpox VACCINE) ignore the remarkably small amount of cases that result in death, the Iraq war casualty numbers ignore the relatively small percentage of combat deaths.