Jacobs Library display memorializes fallen soldiers
LETTER TO THE EDITOR, May 6, 2004
Dear Editor:
The staff of IVCC’s Jacobs Library should be commended for the fine display that memorializes the more than 700 American and coalition soldiers who have been killed in the war in Iraq. (The display can be viewed from the stairs leading to the upper level of A building.) The library display is a vivid reminder of the human cost of war. Sadly, the list is incomplete: additional names need to be added as American soldiers continue to die in Iraq.
And, sadly, the display is incomplete because it does not make any reference to the many Iraqis who have died in the war. Government officials claim that the United States does not keep track of Iraqi casualties, but the organization Iraq Body Count estimates that at least 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the United
States invaded Iraq. Of course, I realize that it would not be reasonable for the library to add these names to the display—there is hardly room on the walls for so many names, and, besides, most of the names of the Iraqi dead are unknown to us—but particularly at a college, where students should learn to view themselves in the context of a larger world and to understand and appreciate people of other cultures, we should not encourage the assumption that the only deaths that matter are those of Americans and coalition soldiers.
Most of the names of the 10,000 Iraqi dead remain unknown to Americans, but the Web page www.iraqbodycount.net/names.htm does list the names of 692 Iraqi civilians who have died since the United States began its war with Iraq.
Perhaps this list should be included with the library display to help provide a more complete view of the great human cost of war. Indeed, the cost is high.
The ages of many of the Iraqi victims on the list are unknown, but at least 50 of the victims are under ten years of age, and 106 of the victims are women.
This list of 692 names represents fewer than 7 percent of the estimated number of Iraqi civilian killed thus far.
The library should be commended for this fine display, but the lack of any mention of Iraqi deaths is disturbing. Perhaps we are likely to feel greater empathy for people who look like us, who have familiar-sounding names, and who come from places we have heard of, but these similarities are superficial. We should recognize that every human death due to war is a tragedy.
Randy Rambo
English Instructor