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.