Names of the Dead -- September 2, 2009
One of the pieces I get in my blog reader (almost every day) is the New York Times’ Names of the Dead List.
Every time a US military servicemember dies in the Iraq or Afghanistan War, the Times runs a small piece listing their names, age, rank, hometown, and regiment.
Today’s paper listed the 799th, 800th, and 801st servicemembers to die in the War in Afghanistan.
I don’t learn anything I don’t already know by reading the List, but I do choose to read it because it reminds me that there are real people fighting in these wars. To just read the political analyses, one would think that everything is done behind closed doors in air conditioned rooms in Washington and Kabul.
Afghanistan is a mess right now — July 2009 used to be the deadliest month of the entire war… but then August came around; just like how 2007 used to be the deadliest year… then it was 2008… and now it’s 2009 with 4 months to go. And to top it off, they just held a most un-democratic election.
I only hope Obama can make some progress soon. I do think the additional troops he’s sending will help — even if they’re too few, too late.
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Check out In the Graveyard of Empires by Seth G. Jones if you’re looking for a good outline of what went wrong in Afghanistan. It just came out and is very up-to-date. However, I highly recommend that you also check out Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars about US involvement in Afghanistan from 1979-2001. To understand what’s going on now, just read what we did in the 1980′s to the Soviets.
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Good post.
For a moving counterpart to the NYT series, go to: http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0125-03.htm