To Calvin ‘Grim Accounting’ Woodward of AP: Read the Linked Post

Someone had to ring the moral equivalence bell. Someone ended up being Calvin Woodward of AP:

WASHINGTON - Now the death toll is 9/11 times two. U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now match those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next. Add casualties from chasing terrorists elsewhere in the world, and the total has passed the Sept. 11 figure.

The latest milestone for a country at war comes without commemoration. It also may well come without the precision of knowing who is the 2,973rd man or woman of arms to die in conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, or just when it happens. The terrorist attacks killed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Not for the first time, war that was started to answer death has resulted in at least as much death for the country that was first attacked, quite apart from the higher numbers of enemy and civilians killed.

Historians note that this grim accounting is not how the success or failure of warfare is measured, and that the reasons for conflict are broader than what served as the spark.

Aw, zheesh, Calvin. Read this post from September 3, and come back when you’ve got something really worth reporting.

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UPDATE: Tigerhawk — “This is such a peculiar way to look at the war it almost seems as though the Associated Press is declaring defeat to make a political point. How quickly after Pearl Harbor did our casualties exceed the 2390 American souls who perished on that day? Fort Sumpter surrendered under Confederate bombardment without a single Union death. Did that fact render the first Union death newsworthy?”

UPDATE 2: USS Neverdock — “Those lives lost, as great as that loss is, were not lost in vain. They died for our and the world’s freedom. In the process they freed over 50 million Muslims from tyranny. Moreover, those that died volunteered to serve and protect us - they died for what they believed in.”

UPDATE 3, Sept. 24: Others weighing in — Allah at Hot Air, American Mind, Point Five (who goes binary), and Texas Hold ‘em.

UPDATE 4, Sept. 25: Taranto at Best of the Web –

We have three points to make, one glib, one obvious and one really important.

Glib: Why are they counting the deaths in Iraq, which, as we keep hearing, had nothing to do with 9/11?

Obvious: Were there any news stories noting the “milestone” of World War II deaths surpassing those at Pearl Harbor?

Really important: This comparison is an insult to the servicemen who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice. They volunteered to do a dangerous job, knowing that it might cost them their lives. They deserve to be remembered as heroes, not victims like the civilians who were murdered on 9/11.