posted 09-10-2004 08:25 PM         

"Other than for purely political reasons, there is no justification for the extensive coverage of U.S. deaths in Iraq.

Buried was the fact that about 250 of the deaths were not related to combat, such as vehicle accidents, drownings and electrocutions that could easily have occurred stateside as well ("A portrait of the U.S. dead", News, Wednesday).

So now we are actually talking about roughly 750 actual combat deaths since March of 2003. This is actually a very low number, considering the hostile environment in which these soldiers operate.

Let's compare that statistic with the nearly 600 homicides in New York City in 2002, or the more than 600 murders in Los Angeles that year. Even multiplying the number of Iraq combat deaths by 10 would be far less than the 16,200 people murdered in American in 2002.

The fact is that many more Americans die of hostile acts right here at home each year than die on the streets of Iraq. At least our soldiers are making their ultimate sacrifices for the cause of freedom and to keep our country free from more terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists.

James V. Kelso III
Retired lieutenant colonel
U.S. Air Force
Peachtree City, GA"

Interesting perspective. My own son is military and has spent most of the last two years in the Middle East (we think). I worry about him every minute, but I also know that if (God forbid) something should happen to him, he was doing a job he chose and believed in. To me, that would be easier to accept than getting killed by a drunk driver, or robbed and killed on the street by some druggie.