Casualties of War

Sidney Blumenthal mentions today that the Pentagon is beginning to resort to "enemy body counts" to indicate success, while the American body count also continues to rise -- and not all of them are from the war itself:

In a little more than a week, Ann and Bill Byers lost both their sons. One died in combat in Iraq; the other was struck and killed by a pickup a few miles from home.

Sgt. Casey Byers, 22, a member of the 224th Engineer Battalion of the Iowa National Guard, died June 11 south of Ramadi when a bomb exploded under his armored Humvee.

Justin Byers, 19, who was scheduled to leave for Iraq himself this fall with an Army Reserve unit, was killed Monday night near here.

Even more devastating news came Wednesday, about an hour before Casey Byers' funeral began in Denison: Justin's death was ruled a suicide.

Crawford County Medical Examiner Dennis Crabb said Justin was upset about his brother's death and his own upcoming deployment.

Because of his brother's death in combat, however, Justin Byers would not have been required to accompany his unit to Iraq.

Evidence at the accident scene and the way Justin had been acting led investigators to conclude that he purposely stepped in front of the pickup, Crabb said.

Can it get any sadder than this? Behind every one of those 1700+ kids who have died in this illegal war, conceived on lies and fought on the cheap, is a family. Not every wife, sister, brother, parent, has become suicidal, but the grief these families suffer isn't just a question of numbers. I can't imagine being nineteen years old and being so fatalistic about even the THOUGHT of the POSSIBILITY of being sent into this meat grinder that you feel you have no choice but to step in front of a truck.