"It's a number"

That's what press secretary Tony Snow said at the White House a couple days ago regarding the 2,500th U.S. casualty in the Iraq War.

As reported by William Branigin and Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post, Snow said regarding the 2,500 casualty, "It's a number, and every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks, people want something. The president would like the war to be over now. Everybody would like the war to be over now."

Snow also said to reporters, "Any president who goes through a time of war very deeply the responsibility for sending men and women into harm's way and feels very deeply the pain that the families feel.... So it's always a sad benchmark, and one of the things the president has said is that these people will not die in vain."

According to Pentagon figures, to go along with 2,500 deaths, another 18,500 troops have been wounded.

Snow certainly has a way with words, doesn't he? A number, eh? We send these men and women overseas to fight a war based on false pretenses and those that die are just a number? Tell the families that. I'd have to imagine they feel differently. If Bush's kids died, then we'd truly get to see the pain he feels. It'd be the same kind of pain that the families of these 2,500 soldiers have endured. The pain we feel is much different when a friend, family member, or loved one perishes than when someone we don't personally know dies. We may be saddened by tragic stories we hear about on the news, but they will not have the same impact as those that occur within our own little circles. Snow can say what he wants, but not he nor Bush have any idea of the pain these families are going through.

Quite the exaggeration by Snow, as well. Five-hundred benchmarks? Unless the guy is trying to foreshadow there being a total of 500 by the time the war ends. When do these benchmarks garner attention? Every 500? So, if that's the case, this would have been the 5th benchmark. I'll even exaggerate a tad and claim that there are two benchmarks per year in the Iraq War. At that pace, the war would end in 2253. Snow did all he could to play down the 2,500th casualty, didn't he? He better hope the troops are withdrawn before the 3,000th casualty, because not even he will be able to play that "number" down.

Link:

http://michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7272