A little perspective on the “grim milestone” watch

If nothing else proves that most MSM journalists are hacks, it’s their inability to break free from the phrase “grim milestone” whenever they talk about a new reportable number of American deaths in Iraq.  They’ve taken a phrase that should give a sense of tragedy and, instead, turned it into something so hackneyed it’s almost laughable.  Just to make my point, here’s the LA Times, reprinted in the SF Chron, with the latest iteration of that expression (see paragraph 2).  A Google search will lead you to more than 92,000 other articles in which grim milestones rear their ugly heads.

I had this particular grim milestone put into perspective for me by my 8 year old today, someone who is fascinated (and always has been) by war and the military.  I forget how it came up, but the conversation, as it so often does with him, turned to war.  He said something and my response was “Honey, war is dangerous.  You can’t have a war without people dying.”   His next question was inevitable:  “How many people have died in Iraq?” I told him that lots of people have died, including 4,000 American troops.  After we clarified that my reference to troops meant 4,000 individual deaths, and not the wiping out of 4,000 battalions, he commented, “Is that all?”  “Yes,” I said, “that’s all.”  I began to remind him that each death was an individual tragedy, a loss for mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. . . .   He cut me off:  “I know that, but 4,000 is a really small number compared to other wars.  Millions died in World War II.  Four thousand is nothing.  I’m really sad they died, but that’s not a big number for a war.”

I didn’t let the conversation stop there, explaining to him that there are still lots of people wounded — seriously and permanently — but that modern medicine is one of the reasons our troops have such a high survival rate.  He appreciated that and, bless his little 8 year old heart, showed appropriate sympathy for the men and women who come home hurt.  Still, I think he had a point and exhibited some good perspective based upon his fairly accurate historic knowledge.  (Did I mention that he’s interested in warfare?)