It's all about numbers, baby

A friend of mine, an unregenerate liberal, called me ysterday, very excited. "You've got to watch CNN," he said. "Then you'll see." Avid perusal of CNN revealed nothing. "I can't understand it," he said. "Why wouldn't they report that?" Questioning revealed that he'd heard on the radio that 19 American troops had been killed, and that he wanted me to see what this war had wrought. Surfing the internet later, I discovered who had really died: 19 Iraqi Soldiers. So my friend was right: 19 young men had died at the hands of the paramilitary death squads roaming certain areas of Iraq. What fascinated me, though, was that my friend, who is a decent man, was so morbidly gleeful at the thought of 19 American dead. Anything to score points in an argument. Equally fascinating was the fact that my friend, who is a decent man, was totally uninterested in the thought of 19 Iraqis being killed. That number didn't carry political weight, so who cares? I think my friend highlights the fact that liberals couldn't care less about the sacrifice our troops make, about the victories they've created, or about the incredible changes in the Middle East. To them, the dead they count so zealously are merely "so there's" in their ongoing battle with President Bush.