Body counts: the smell of Vietnam

For those of us old enough to remember the day-to-day coverage of the war on television, one of the recurring refrains was the body count. We always "got" this many on this day, and so many there. Mention was rarely made of our casualties, except that they were "light".

It's the same thing now: every day, we hear the numbers of killed (SOME of them, mind you) and wounded (only from the engagements where we had KIAs), but we hear over and over how many insurgents have been killed.

It's not just the same, it's REALLY the same; it's the standard format for the brief recaps of the recent idiocy on the news shows. As before, it's the default summary of our heroic defense of our way of life.

You'll also note that the wounded and survivors of engagements seem to constantly praise god for being protected. I've heard one response that was obviously prompted from a reporter, and it all smacks of deliberate attempts to salt the whole dialog with more religious justifications.

We've learned nothing.

Anyone else having this deja vu?

I was just thinking the same thing, this morning.