Festum omnium sanctorum

For a goodly portion of the world, November 1st is All Saint’s Day. A Holy Day of Obligation, it calls upon all Catholics to celebrate and honor those who, after death, have achieved the “beatific vision”: the perfect happiness found in beholding God face to face. November 2nd is designated as All Soul’s Day, when the faithful offer up prayers for those who have yet to be accepted into heaven, for whatever reason. So it seems an appropriate time to assess, in an admittedly feeble way, the cost of the current war. These are the numbers, as of 11/2/07:

3870……..US military deaths confirmed by the Dept. of Defense

28,171……..US wounded

32,041…….US casualties, total

64%……..Pentagon/VA estimate for number of US injured with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

304……..Coalition casualties (non-US)

177……..IED fatalities in first 12 months of war

600……..IED fatalities in last 12 months of war

144……..Journalists killed in Iraq

1,001……..Contractors killed in Iraq (partial list)

82,776……..Iraqi civilians killed (documented deaths only)

At the risk of being crass, I will include the cost of the Iraq war in US dollars (as of 09:15 PST): $465,173,222,350

And finally…

Tags: brain injury, casualties, catholicism, civilian, contractors, deaths, fatalities, impotent rage, iraq, journalists, Rachel Powers, War