This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
On Tuesday the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Afghanistan surpassed 1,000. "The $100-billion-per-year war itself—and the daily losses in lives—should be front-and-center in the media most days, but that often is not the case," says David Corn at Mojo, the politics and current affairs blog at Mother Jones magazine. In Corn's case, he and his fellow writers do remind their readers of the war with a daily photo post called We're Still at War. It's a simple, yet solemn reminder about what thousands of Americans, including many hailing from the numerous California bases are doing for the country.
Since 2001, 585 on-duty Californians have lost their lives in the in the war. That number also includes deaths in Iraq, where over 4,300 soldiers have died.
To understand the rapid pace of American death in Afghanistan, it took seven years for the number of war dead to reach 500. That pivotal number was in August 2008. Fast forward to less than two years later and we've topped 1,000. Why? "A resurgent Taliban active in almost every province, a weak central government incapable of protecting its people and a larger number of American troops in harm’s way all contributed to the accelerating pace of death," explains the New York Times.
Memorial Day is less than two weeks away, and while the day is packed with events (it's even quit Facebook day), don't forget to send some love to our soldiers.
