Recently the media noted that according to a survey, a relatively small number of Americans knew that the death toll among U.S. servicemembers in Iraq was, at that point, approaching 4,000. As we all know, that number was reached this week. It was, in words appearing in 1,821 separate journalistic entries found on Google News, a "grim milestone."

In a single New York Times article it was not only called a grim milestone, but a "dire water mark," a "sober moment," a "somber development," "heartbreaking news," and a "grim new toll." It was all those things, of course, but one wonders if the very repetition tends toward numbness.

Worse is the way the news has been politicized, as such news frequently is. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrats, threw the news into the White House's face. Pelosi said Americans do not want "continuation of the President's plan for a 10-year, three trillion dollar war in Iraq."

Conservative bloggers, in turn, castigated war critics and "blatantly anti-war wire services [that are] salivating and drooling" over the milestone. (Littlegreenfootballs.com).

Amid the verbal fisticuffs, the advice of one veterans advocate made sense. Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who himself has been a critic of the war, said in a statement: "The 4,000th killed-in-action in Iraq is newsworthy, but the truth is that every death should be a news item. The 4,000th death should not be expoited in the polarized arguments about the war. Honoring the fallen is neither a pro- nor an anti-war statement. It's about respecting the sacrifice of thousands of America's sons and daughters."