I was watching MSNBC’s coverage of the withdrawal of American <insert qualifier> troops from Iraq. There was no mention of the cost of this war to the Iraqis. None. Requisite homage to American dead and injured was never followed, not even in passing, to the Iraqis’. And this was on a show that is accused of being left-biased!

I suspect that they dared not drop even a hint of the cost to Iraq. At most, after a few reportages, a brief call was made that Iraqi translators and such ought to be protected.

This has often been the case in the US. Even the symbolic pretenses to liberation and freedom have been dropped. And any mention of our victims is akin to treason. “Support the Troops” means support the war. The recurring traumatic stress disorder that we inflicted upon a nation is now lost in the din of collective hysteria about the latest Asian horde.

How many people died? A million? One and a half million? The most damning fact stands: We did not even count! And these are people who would not have died, had we not invaded.

Is this what becomes of us? Is this how the human animal is? Destroying a people, then moving on to wallow in your own navel.