Deaths in Iraq Take a Steady Toll at Home (NY Times)

[kimchi]

WEST POINT, N.Y., Nov. 1 In the last two weeks, 22 American soldiers have given their lives to the occupation of Iraq (news - web sites), a platoon of 21 men and 1 woman cut down to a stack of photographs by accidents, illness and the rising insurgency.


There is Lt. David Bernstein, a soldier's soldier who was killed two weeks ago and buried on Friday at the United States Military Academy here. As his mother sat with a folded flag in her lap and his father accepted a Bronze Star, even the Green Berets cried.


And there is Sgt. Aubrey Bell, the 280-pound Alabama National Guardsman, who drove a forklift and ate mayonnaise sandwiches, and who was shot to death in front of a police station.


And Pvt. Rachel Bosveld, the 19-year-old military policewoman who loved to draw forest scenes and was silenced by mortars.


And Sgt. Paul J. Johnson, a paratrooper who could imagine no fate better than leaping into the night sky, who died after being burned by a bomb.

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many more stories of our brave troops and their families. No photos of coffins? No problem--the testimony of their lives serves just as well, and will not be suppressed.

[newyawker99]

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