2,000

Today we hit the 2,000 mark for U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. I've never quite gotten comfortable with how easy it is for folks to focus on numbers. Obviously 2,000 is significant, but I'm equally disturbed by the fact that we watch the news and look at casualty numbers as if they were rising gas prices. 1,997, 1,998, 1,999...2,000. Even worse, there's more outrage over rising gas prices than there is over this war.

I don't know when that will change, or what will cause it to. But to put aside feelings of outrage for one minute, to remember 2,000 individuals who have lost their lives - who are more than just numbers reported on cable news - seems important. Truthout is doing a series this week where they are publishing interviews with family members of the 2,000 soldiers who have died - reminding us that the fallen are more than just numbers, they are mothers, fathers, brothers, volunteer firefighters, neices, and more.

Lastly, some words from Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and author, on the potential of humanity. Wiesel actually supported the Iraq war, purportedly, but no matter. He's right on about this...

"I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings."