I was reading an article the other day about the Iraq war and they mentioned that October was likely to be a large spike in coalition (mainly US) casualties. I recall seeing the number and it was the first time in a while that I didn't see the number as a representative item like I was taught to replace oranges or apples as a kid. 2 apples can be substituted for two apples. But 109, the current count of coalition casualties in Iraq struck me as more than just numbers. I could see stuck into the numbers the dying and the dead people. It was as if were I to take a magnifying glass over each number deep in the text there would be bodies filled with gunshots, burns, and missing limbs. I am not sure who to address unhappiness towards because of these deaths. My first and favorite people to place responsibility on are the people who are killing coalition soldiers. They are the people most to blame. But as an early supporter of the original war and wanting to see democracy replace a dictatorship maybe I am one of the primary people to blame? Things haven't turned out the way I had imagined they would when we first went in there.

Either way I wonder what is so casual about a casualty. I did find a web site where they tally the dead and injured in Iraq www.icasualties.com. It even has XML RSS feeds if you wanted to syndicate such information onto your own web site.