"It's Just A Number", Says Republican Spokesman Tony Snow

White House Spokesman Tony Snow Calls 2500 "Just A Number", when referring to the number of U.S. Deaths in Iraq.

This was from his June 15th News Conference.

This is a perfect example of how suburban America sees the war in Iraq. This is a huge problem, and has been the problem all along. It says a lot about the mindset of the American people. To most middle class & upper class Americans, the war in Iraq is a completely different world. They are oblivious to what is happening there. It's something that's happening 10,000 miles away, "so it doesn't affect me". More importantly, they are not as likely to have a loved one in the military, deployed in Iraq- even more of a reason for them not to be too concerned with Iraq or with war in general.

A big part of the problem is that the U.S. media has white washed this war, as they have done with other wars in recent years. This has taken the human face and human story out of the picture, leaving "just numbers" for most Americans. Americans see war as just a video game, because this is how Fox News and CNN & others have marketed it- as entertainment.

The U.S. government basically collaborates with the media to sell war as entertainment. Americans are not even allowed (through policy) to see the flagged draped coffins returning from war. So the realities of war are removed from sight.

Now, even the Defense Department uses video wargames to attract new recruits- militarizing young people to get them into the "patriotic" spirit, all the while, giving them a false impression of what war really is--> Hell!!! And within that hell there are people.... people who have families or someone back home worried about them everyday. People with folks back home who are counting on them. People with stories, legacies, histories, and future ambitions, who have talents, who have mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children.... and in the case of the National Guard soldiers, they have jobs and careers at home waiting for them...jobs and careers that they left.

Someone needs to tell Tony Snow & his fellow priviledged Americans that it is not "just a number"!