War in Iraq

I've got ten years total service in the military (including 2 years inactive as part of my enlistment). I'm not thrilled with the military. I find some of their mistakes in even the simple matters such as uniforms to be scary when the leadership of the military are in charge of decisions that can determine if you are going to live or die.

Still, some things shock me and it isn't the military to blame. I remember when the magic number of 2000 troops died happened. There was a lot of press on the subject and a resurgance of pro and anti war discussion.

Today, I read an article that indicated that 3200 troops have died since the inception of the current war. Did I miss the agitation this time around or is it simply old hat and when we passed 3000 troops dead in the current war it simply wasn't newsworthy?

I don't get it. I don't agree with the war; however, when people die in our wars we need to honor them and acknowledge their deaths regardless of our view of the war itself. I recognize that this is difficult to do all the time and would make our news very dire, but at least on every 1000 war dead, we should shout out their names and say this person died for their county! It should not be a matter of politics that releasing this information would damage the war effort so we shouldn't acknowledge our war dead. These people are dead and the things they had to do in life, the children and spouses they have left behind will never recover from their passing.

Recognition for dying in a war shouldn't have to wait 20 years. Recognition for dying in a war isn't best done with some cold monument.