The Horror, The Horror

The criminal disappointment of Iraq is that one can never really even hold the remotest hope that maybe things are improving.

I was guilty of this three days ago. Like many, I often go to the Iraq Coalition Casualty page, hoping the numbers don't increase.

Just 48 hours ago, the page listed 1,076 casualties. The average number of deaths per day was just ONE a day, which is infinitely better than the nearly 3 a day that were dying in September. There was hope, at least for American Soldiers that their fatalities rates were declining -- perhaps Bush was putting them under wraps until November, which I considered likely.

Now it list 1,092 and more undoubtedly are coming. And, of course, the number of Iraqi dead is much, much higher.

What a soul-crushing thing this is...and that is from sitting here, safely in America, without a family member or friend over there.