Editorial: Too many people have died

What does a number mean? When the death toll of U.S. troops killed in Iraq was 1,900, or 500, or even 1, it was a terrible, criminal tragedy. But now that one more needless death has put the toll into the 2,000s, somehow the criminality of this war becomes even more shocking.

Our hearts go out to the families of those killed. They will carry that pain with them forever.

They will be joined in their pain by the families of the tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children killed — some estimate the number as high as 100,000 or more — in this war of imperial aggression, sold to the American people by schemes and lies.

More than 1,000 solemn vigils, in every state of the Union, marked this deadly milestone, posing the question asked a generation ago during Vietnam: “How many deaths will it take till we know, too many people have died?”

When Bob Dylan sang that refrain in the 1960s, he spoke for the soul of our nation. President Lyndon Johnson was forced into retirement and Nixon was forced to the peace table because a mass peace movement finally rose up and said, “Enough!”

That war lasted a decade and cost over 50,000 U.S. lives.

Today, a growing majority of Americans are saying it’s time to get out of Iraq. Congress is starting to get the message. This week, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) introduced legislation to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to deploy U.S. troops to Iraq. Reps. David Price and Brad Miller, both North Carolina Democrats, have introduced a joint resolution directing the president to submit a detailed plan to Congress for ending the occupation. Sen. John Kerry has called for an immediate, detailed plan for withdrawal.

We urge our readers to put the pressure on their congressional representatives so that not another mother’s son or daughter has to die in this war based on lies.

The best way we can honor the 2,000 whose tragic deaths we mark this week is to say, again, “Enough!”