Monday, April 21, 2003

It doesn't seem to be anywhere on the Web site, but yesterday The New York Times gave over the entire back page of its "Nation at War" section to a chart headlined "In Perspective: America's Conflicts." Shown for the two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the two Iraq wars were:

* cost of the war in 2002 dollars

* a brief description of the war's technical advances

* precision-guided weapons as a percentage of total

* number of sorties flown

* number of sorties required to hit a 60- by 100-foot building

* total number of American soldiers killed in battle

* number of American soldiers killed per calendar month

That's it. Allied/"coalition" casualties? Enemy casualties? Civilian casualties? Apparently not important -- or certainly not as important as the number of sorties required to hit a 60- by 100-foot building.

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