J.D. JOHANNES, recently back from Iraq, writes on the “2,000th casualty” PR event:

Unfortunately, the media and the anti-war factions will never see Staff Sgt. Alexander as more than number 2000–a number used to wage a political battle. . . .

Unlike the pundits who will bray this evening on the cable channels and the activists who will hold vigils in Washington, D.C., I have been to the country where these men died.

I have been to the exact village where 1,998 died.

I have walked the dirt roads of Al Amariyah. I have been in businesses and houses around Amariyah. I have rode in a humvee up and down the bomb littered roads leading into Amariyah.

I may not have known Lance Corporal Butler, but I spent months with Lance Corporals–many in the Corps for less than a year–who patrolled Amariyah. . . .

Numbers 2,000, 1,999 and 1,997 also strapped up every day to stand on a wall many in America are willing let crumble. And to those who would let that wall crumble, they are just numbers.

They are not men of action and conviction, to the anti-war faction, they are merely numbers of sufficient quotient to send a press releases and hold press events.

I asked Marines all across Al Anbar province two questions:
1. If something goes bad and you die here. What would you think of people who used your death to protest the war.
2. After being here, and knowing what you know, would you still join the Marines/volunteer for this deployment?

The answers were invariably the same.

They did not want their death to be used as a prop and they would make the same decision all over again. These young Lance Corporals and Non-Commissioned Officers volunteered to join the Marines, many with the intent of coming to Iraq. And while few would say they like war, they all recognize the necessity of it.

The Marines and soldiers who fight in Iraq are not numbers, but the media and certain groups are treating them as if they were. Number 2,000 was a national treasure, just as number 1,435 was and number 2,038 will be. For what is the value of a man who will fight a war for others who despise him?

But for those who are willing to take action, there would be no wall at all hold back evil and those men and women on the wall deserve more than a number.

Read the whole thing.