Reader Sean alerted me to this story about a mother dying of heart failure after seeing her son return, dead, from Iraq. Nothing new, in fact–I’ve seen similar stories over the past year. But still, with people now so used to hearing about soldiers die, this story brings home the reality of the tragedy we’re involved in. The pain and suffering only of Americans who have lost loved ones is horrific enough. Then there are the 17,000+ who have been injured in battle–another number the Bush administration wants to hide–with uncounted hundreds maimed, thousands with lifetime disabilities. And we’re not even counting the possible tens of thousands of Iraqis killed, far more wounded and maimed for life, numbers not certain because the military intentionally avoids counting them.

I remember in the first few months of the occupation, conservatives on the forums I attended were constantly crowing about how much better things were in Iraq since Hussein was ousted, how many schools were open, or how much electricity had been restored.

They don’t talk about that any more.