Not Just Numbers from Iraq

This is from the latest Christian Century, which cites the Guardian, March 19 as its source:

Toll of the Iraq war:
- 1,512 U.S. troops killed in Iraq
- 1,157 combat deaths
- 355 U.S. noncombat deaths
- 11,285 troops wounded
- 17,053 - 19,422 estimated civilian casualties since the war started, according to Iraq Body Count
- 189 foreign nationals kidnapped since October 2003, 47 still captive
- 170,000 coalition troops as of March 2003
- 175,000 coalition troops as of March 2005
- 18,000 estimated insurgents
- 1,000 estimated foreign insurgents

This is from me: Every one of the numbers represents a sacred human life, with parents, pet peves, dreams and desires, passions and personality quirks. Every single digit on that list is a child of God, and therefore of immeasurable worth. This is not a list of numbers, it is a list of souls.
AJ Muste said, "There is no way to peace, peace is the way." Marla Ruzicka said, "It is a luxury for people to say war is bad when they are in San Francisco. ... You can't say something is bad unless you come in with ways to fix it." Dwight Eisenhower said, "I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."
War is not an abstract concept; real people get hurt and bleed and even die. Peace is not an abstract concept, either; real people survive and live and even flourish.
Make peace today, so that there will be no more lists of not-just-numbers tomorrow.
Grace and peace,
Andy B.