Honor Their Sacrifice | The Nation   Honor Their Sacrifice    •
Share   • Decrease text size Increase text size  I suspect that
for many who oppose the war in Iraq, as I do, each week's news
of fresh American casualties prompts a troubling, unvoiced
internal dialogue. They feel grief that these lives--many so
young--have been violently cut off. But then a thought follows--
one well-founded in observation of American politics--that more
casualties spell less public support for the war, which
therefore may end sooner. At this point a kind of moral
seasickness sets in. Have they somehow permitted themselves to
let these deaths secretly feed their political hopes--in a sense
to rely on them--if only in the secrecy of their own thoughts?
About the Author  Jonathan Schell  Also by the Author    The
answer is a resounding no, but the reasons are somewhat
complicated. To begin with, American casualties in Iraq don't
have the military significance they might have had if the war
were a conventional one. They do not por