2,000

2,000 deaths and significantly more wounded so far in Iraq - it is hard to believe. Seriously, when you think of how many people 2,000 really is, it is hard to imagine. I think about my whole high school getting wiped out as that is about how many we were.

Of course, what gets me the most is reading the individual stories and seeing the pictures of these young men and women. They were just starting their lives and had hopes and dreams for a long future. When they were growing up did they ever think they would end up dying at such a young age in a hostile foreign land? I am sure they did not.

As I read the stories, I feel an intense guilt. The war in Iraq has not impacted my life. I still go about my business as I did before the war started and obsess over the same stupid things that I always have. These poor kids and that is what they generally are - poor. They come from the lower part of the economic spectrum. The military promises them an "out." Of course, that out is fraught with risk.

It all seems so unjust - the young and poor are the ones dying for a war started by the old and rich. Of course, this is how it has been for thousands of years. However, that does not make it right. Ugh.