A chilling Easter accomplishment

First off, this is heart-wrenching. But I'm left with an immediate need to know more about the Time staff reporter who wrote it. Is it an American? An Iraqi? Someone else? The image of the child will stay with me.

But here's the main headline: U.S. toll in Iraq reaches 4000.

It's a drop in the casualty bucket compared to past US wars and non-declared military actions. But in modern warfare, where we can pretty much automate anything and have, it seems unnecessarily high, doesn't it? Chances are you've been able to ball-park the US death toll since the war started, five years ago, but can you quote the number of wounded? How about the number of Iraqis killed? Neither population's people should be worth more or less, but we'll always know how many of "ours" are gone.

As it is Easter, I can help but want to say, with deepest sincerity, that everyone should be ours.

But they aren't.