I note only a fraction

The fatality count for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq is really just one part of the toll of war. Mark Harris adds in the wounded and reminds us of this sorrowful statistic.

US Casualties top 35,000, almost unnoticed.

There is enough going on that we need reminding from time to time: The war in Iraq is costing the lives of men and women from the US, many more in the country whose leadership we so massively rearranged. Sometime in the past two weeks US casualties, the dead and wounded, pasts the 35,000 mark - 4,204 dead, 30,832 wounded.

To that one may add the peoples of the land who have perished in the needless war in Iraq or the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. Now we are in the hundreds of thousands.

We must never forget the reality of war when anyone tries to make it glorious. Great bravery and sacrifice occur and much admirable behavior amid the horrors but war remains inglorious, brutal, and devastating.

Godde have mercy on us all.
--the BB