(no subject)
The Coalition military death toll is now 4000. Is this shocking?
After all, the way things are going, barring some incomprehensible change of fortune (which the White House promises for September), the United States alone will reach the same number by Thanksgiving. Tops. And it'll be the laziest non-event because four thousand is simply not an interesting number. The last time the number of US dead in Iraq was immediately agonizing was when it matched the dead from 9/11. Suddenly, we had doubled our losses without retribution or satisfaction. Not feeling the slightest bit safer, we had doubled our losses unnecessarily and uselessly, shaming the families of the 9/11 dead. 2,975 deaths in Iraq put a spotlight on the national betrayal.
But 4000 deaths? That doesn't recall 9/11. Not immediately, anyway. It doesn't recall Pearl Harbor or Tet or Gettysburg either. It's a milestone, but really it's just a number. The news coverage will be light and inevitably repackaged from earlier, similar milestones. The anchors with no new pain will read the same scripts and air the same retrospectives, concocting just as they did at 3000 and 2000 and 1000 dreams of eventual withdrawl but matching it--destroying it--by reminding the audience that recently Bush or Cheney had said something promising about our presence in Iraq. "Things are turning around. Just wait until six weeks from now. We swear." And with that your guilt and anger, guilt and anger you rightfully feel upon hearing about such a massive pile of bodies, it will be diffused. Your attention will wander. After all, you're not being affected. Your life is the same as it's always been. It's just a number.
What's the next number that might shock us?
My money is on 10,000. This one's a long shot, but given that we never expected to be in Iraq this long, it's no longer laughably inconcievable. At the current rate it'll take us only seven or eight more years to get there; we were in Vietnam for nine years, how ridiculous is twelve? Anyway, deaths in the five digits should really stir up the pot of resentment and political anguish and then watch out, President Whoever! The people of the United States won't put up with this any longer!
Actually, the secret number nobody reports on is also the most important. US wounded is 27,186 as of July. Twenty-seven thousand people with war injuries. Paraplegics, Quadriplegics, people missing eyes and fingers, some burned to unrecognizability. Shrapnel, shellshock, night terrors, paranoia, depression and suicide. And like in Vietnam these destroyed and broken men and women will merge eventually with the returning Iraq Veterans (get used to that term) and the best of this furious, demoralized group will seek public office. If no earlier, that's when we'll see change.
I pray that we lose this stifling complacency before then.
After all, the way things are going, barring some incomprehensible change of fortune (which the White House promises for September), the United States alone will reach the same number by Thanksgiving. Tops. And it'll be the laziest non-event because four thousand is simply not an interesting number. The last time the number of US dead in Iraq was immediately agonizing was when it matched the dead from 9/11. Suddenly, we had doubled our losses without retribution or satisfaction. Not feeling the slightest bit safer, we had doubled our losses unnecessarily and uselessly, shaming the families of the 9/11 dead. 2,975 deaths in Iraq put a spotlight on the national betrayal.
But 4000 deaths? That doesn't recall 9/11. Not immediately, anyway. It doesn't recall Pearl Harbor or Tet or Gettysburg either. It's a milestone, but really it's just a number. The news coverage will be light and inevitably repackaged from earlier, similar milestones. The anchors with no new pain will read the same scripts and air the same retrospectives, concocting just as they did at 3000 and 2000 and 1000 dreams of eventual withdrawl but matching it--destroying it--by reminding the audience that recently Bush or Cheney had said something promising about our presence in Iraq. "Things are turning around. Just wait until six weeks from now. We swear." And with that your guilt and anger, guilt and anger you rightfully feel upon hearing about such a massive pile of bodies, it will be diffused. Your attention will wander. After all, you're not being affected. Your life is the same as it's always been. It's just a number.
What's the next number that might shock us?
My money is on 10,000. This one's a long shot, but given that we never expected to be in Iraq this long, it's no longer laughably inconcievable. At the current rate it'll take us only seven or eight more years to get there; we were in Vietnam for nine years, how ridiculous is twelve? Anyway, deaths in the five digits should really stir up the pot of resentment and political anguish and then watch out, President Whoever! The people of the United States won't put up with this any longer!
Actually, the secret number nobody reports on is also the most important. US wounded is 27,186 as of July. Twenty-seven thousand people with war injuries. Paraplegics, Quadriplegics, people missing eyes and fingers, some burned to unrecognizability. Shrapnel, shellshock, night terrors, paranoia, depression and suicide. And like in Vietnam these destroyed and broken men and women will merge eventually with the returning Iraq Veterans (get used to that term) and the best of this furious, demoralized group will seek public office. If no earlier, that's when we'll see change.
I pray that we lose this stifling complacency before then.