Blogs For Victory

The headline:

US Deaths in Iraq Approach 4,000

Odd headline, isn’t it? I mean, they’ve been “approaching” 4,000 since, oh, 3,900 was reached…why put this out now? And why not wait for 4,000?

My guess is that the good news is coming out of Iraq all too rapidly these days and that public opinion in the US is turning towards continued support for the long-haul…and that, of course, will damage Democratic prospects in 2008. So, change the subject – use dead American servicemember’s as a prop in a leftwing morality play, courtesy of the supposedly unbiased MSM.

Of course, the loss of life is a sad thing – but the problem with concentrating on numbers like that is that it fails to put into context just what they died for. Its not like they were killed in a traffic accident just on their way home from work, now is it? Here is some of what they’ve been doing lately:

Tip leads Iraqi National Police to large munitions cache

Coalition forces kill 17 terrorists including six likely suicide bombers, detain 30 suspects

Suspected IED emplacers attacked in vicinity of Samarra

One terrorist killed, 21 detained in operations against al-Qaeda

Plenty to write about – and plenty which is interesting, newsworthy and likely to generate readership/viewership. Why write about the number of dead rather than write about the actual war? Can anyone find a headline from, say, June of 1944 which says that “US Deaths in Europe Approach 200,000”, rather than talking about what the troops were doing?