Casualty Counting

U.S. military deaths in Iraq have reached the 2000 mark, the AP reports here. To his credit, the reporter devotes significant space to the military spokesman's email remarks:

"The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives."
...
"Celebrate the daily milestones, the accomplishments they have secured and look to the future of a free and democratic Iraq and to the day that all of our troops return home to the heroes welcome they deserve."

But naturally, this only follows typical anti-war boilerplate:

The grim milestone was reached at a time of growing disenchantment over the war among the American public toward a conflict that was launched to punish Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for his alleged weapons of mass destruction. None were ever found.

As with most MSM accounts of U.S. casualties, no context is provided. It is only reported that

Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander, Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died Saturday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, of wounds suffered Oct. 17, when a bomb exploded near his vehicle in the central Iraqi city of Samarra, the Defense Department said.

Nothing is said about what Sgt. Alexander was doing in Samarra on the 17th, or what his unit has and is accomplishing. Nothing is provided to even hint that Sgt. Alexander may have given his life for a cause worth fighting for. This is so expected by now as to be almost not worth pointing out. Reports like this do a disservice to the soldiers who have died by painting them as helpless victims and to the American people who are not receiving the whole story. Thankfully there are alternative media sources to get the rest of the story out.

Thank you Sgt. Alexander for your service to our country and sacrifice for the cause of freedom