1232

Most days you'll not see 1232 on the front pages of your newspapers.

TV anchors will tell you all about the latest celebrity mishap, but won't say 1232 aloud.

On the radio various wind-bags will debate moral superiority and the wisdom of a final solution, but 1232 won't cross their lips.

What is 1232?

Our KIA

Everybody should know how many soldiers we've lost to death or injury, yet who talks about it? Who mentions it when two more marines are killed in Falluja (yesterday) or that scores more were wounded by a roadside bomb?

I understand why the President and Donald Rumsfeld want to hide these figures from you:

Our wounded totals

but what excuse do you have for hiding it from yourself and each other? What excuse do our moral leaders have to hide the currency of warfare from us?

What are we gaining with all of this sacrifice and killing?

What are the Iraqis gaining?

Fallujah's fallen

Where will it end?

We must ask these questions, you know, or it won't.