A running count bothers you? Don't you think it should? Don't you think it should make you think about those being killed? Would every other day be OK? How about once a week? Would totally ignoring the count be honoring them? Would naming them all be better? I get tired of it, too, but it's not something I would want to publicly complain about, and I wouldn't want to "shoot the messenger". And it's not a "score" or half a "score". It's a "count" of Americans lost to this "let's make some terrorists" war. Now we're going to keep score? Two schools and one hospital opened per 50 dead? One hundred million gallons of crude per each dead soldier? One hundred thousand less hungry Iraqis per 100 dead Americans? I don't think it's half of the score. I think it should be a reminder of those lost to those who don't want to ignore it. It's so easy and human nature to just think of it as a boring number and not real, dead, never to be heard from again, human beings who will be forever missed by their wives, sons, daughters, family, and friends. It hurts to think of it that way. We don't like to hurt. Even when we read the names in the paper we say to ourselves, "That's a shame", then we immediately try to forget about it and we don't want to think about their families missing them and their suffering sorrow. We need to feel that sorrow and not rationalize it away as a fair trade of a life for death with honor. That's not a fair trade, and we should avoid it if at all possible. Our soldiers willing to die for us are precious. I want to bring them all home and honor them all alive, but we can't. The count will continue. Then one day we'll try to look at the final score and see if it was worth it. Some game.