THE FACES of the 1,000 US service members killed in Iraq since January of 2007 display the rich tapestry of America, all the many colors and textures that give this country its special vibrancy. To pore over the thumbnail-sized portraits reprinted this week in The
Go deeper online, where biographies of these service men and women are posted, and specific lives take form behind the equalizing rows of graves at Arlington National Cemetery. Like the previous 3,000, they share mostly that they were all so young.
The hometowns that contributed to the sacrifice include unfamiliar places few may ever visit - Gretna, Neb., perhaps, or Waipahu, Hawaii - but also Brockton, Walpole, Milton, Chicopee, West Boylston, Pembroke, Mashpee, Middlefield, South Easton, Lowell, Norfolk, West Springfield, and Swampscott. The 4,000 Americans killed in Iraq represent the highest military toll since Vietnam, and like all deaths they ripple out to capsize families and communities.
The grim milestone of the 4,000th US death came within days of another - the 5th anniversary of the invasion. The mind ticks through the heartless arithmetic: 800 deaths a year; 15 a week. No one wants to do the awful calculus for the remaining 10 months of the Bush administration, but with troop levels likely remaining the same throughout 2008, more deaths - of Americans and Iraqis - are inevitable. It seems clear now that President Bush intends to leave to a new administration any real change in course for Iraq.
The photos of the fallen this week inevitably echo the "Portraits of Grief" that the Times published after the Sept. 11 attacks - wrenching stories of plans and dreams cut off in mid-breath. There was no real connection between Iraq and Sept. 11 until the Bush administration made it so. The 2,973 lives lost that day were quite enough.
