Aargh.

I didn't even get down the rest of the list.

Killing is a moral issue. To quantify it in these terms is to show a lack of understanding for this. If bad people kill a quarter of a million people, that doesn't make the killers of 2500 people good by comparison. By that logic, Saddam is actually a good guy because he didn't kill as many as Hitler.

It only takes one murder to make a murderer. This is widely known. The question before us is, what kinds of deaths are these?

The numbers you cited stand for that many human beings, that many families left to grieve and nurse their anger. That much poverty of spirit and in some cases, that much plain poverty. If a loved one is killed in someone else's righteous cause, this knowledge does nothing to ease the suffering of the survivors.

I know you know this as I'm pointing it out.

The point is why and under what circumstances these people died. If we are indeed in a war to save the Iraqis, what happens after the shooting stops -- the extent to which the US will take responsibility for its destabilizing action -- will determine whether the outcome is worth the sacrifice. That will show Iraq, and the world, whether this was a war of liberation or only a war to knock off a thugocracy the US no longer found useful.

Regards--
Mary Anne