How Many Lives is Too Many Lives?
I don’t remember who said it, but I once heard that “death is the only sure thing in life.” We’re all doomed from the get go. Although deep down every individual knows this , chances are likely it rarely enters our mind. Death can be very frightening if you sit and think about it. Right now I am picturing myself a frail old man, plugged into God knows how many machines, my final minutes slipping through my fingers…it’s utterly terrifying to imagine. First off, imagining my youth entirely consumed is scary enough, adding to it the image of my final moments is plenty to set me over the edge. Perhaps it is reasons like this that we avoid the topic of death in conversation and even in our thoughts nearly every single day.
If we were all rational people, maybe death wouldn’t be “such a big deal”. Meaning, instead of fearing everything about death, we just accept it for what it is; death is part of the cycle of life. A post by the New York Times on September 21 states that:
The Department of Defense has identified 4,336 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war…(NYTimes).
The current conflict affecting the United States of America is, of course, the war with Iraq. As stated above over four thousand American souls have perished at the gruesome hands of war. Although these some four thousand lives may sound like an incredible amount, the truth of it is that it is such a small number in terms of population. Seeing as there are well over 300 million Americans, these 4,336 deaths is barely 1/1000 of a percent of the population.
The book, “Testament of Youth,” is written by Vera Brittain. She wrote the book to tell the world about her life while she lived in England during World War I. Through her words we can experience the emotion she is feeling when she discovers that the love of her life was killed in battle. The emotion of losing a loved one is so intense that it can even be felt from a century old loss.
World War I emaciated the youth of Europe. The United Kingdom as a whole lost over 2% of its population. Dozens of millions of lives were lost, countries were left obliterated and bankrupt, times were not good. Today, we still feel the effect that World War I had on us, and yet we are currently at war. I know that there are “good reasons” to be at war with Iraq *cough cough*. What I am inquiring here, is whether or not those some 4,000+ lives have the same value to our nation that the millions lost during World War I had to theirs. Is there a certain number, that when reached war turns from necessary to just plain cruel? When will we reach that number. No offense to anyone defending our nation or anyone who knows someone who is defending our nation, but I live the majority of my days not thinking about the war in Iraq (my accounting test on Friday has me a little more worried). What will it take for this war to become embedded in my mind…or even in the minds of all Americans. Am I going to want to live in a world like that?
New York Times
Names of the Dead – List
September 21, 2009
