I think that it was probably a lesson learned from Vietnam, the images of our coffined soldiers returning home dead from the battlefield busted the emotional flood gates which sent thousands into the streets protesting the war. We’ve pretty much taken care of that problem now, as major news networks in the U.S. rarely show pictures of dead or wounded soldiers, instead we see zooming graphics of Bald Eagles and American flags or maybe a couple of close ups of a jet or an aircraft carrier or something.

We’ve always been good at portraying how much ass America kicks, but what we have been pretty bad at in times of conflict is putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes. Yes, we are aware of how many U.S. soldiers have been killed since the start of operations (3100) but how many Iraqis? Don’t know? Don’t worry your not alone; most Americans have no concept of how many Iraqi civilians have lost their lives since we set foot on their soil.

The most conservative statistic is 54,000, where as John Hopkins University estimates a number much larger, 650,000. But with the median American citizen’s guess being at 9,890, it’s apparent that our public has no real conception, either way, of the destruction that is going on in Iraq. It is this fact that makes my skin crawl when I hear people discuss the costs of war and freedom in Iraq. “The Iraqis must pay the price for their freedom!” Fair enough, but how large are we going to make the bill?  If you want to do something to help sway public opinion towards peace, let people know that they would have to multiply the number of people killed on 9/11 two hundred and seventeen times in order to equal the number of Iraqi civillians killed.