Hidden Casualties

Daily Kos links to this article about children who've lost parents in the wars:

Sad to the depths of his 4-year-old soul, Jack Shanaberger knew what he didn't want to be when he grows up: a father.

"I don't want to be a daddy because daddies die," the child solemnly told his mother after his father, Staff Sgt. Wentz "Baron" Shanaberger, a military policeman from Fort Pierce, Fla., was killed March 23 in an ambush in Iraq...

from Defense Department casualty reports, obituaries and accounts in hometown newspapers, and family interviews, Scripps Howard News Service has identified nearly 900 U.S. children who have lost a parent in the war, from the start of the conflict in March 2003 through November, when a total of 1,256 troops had died.

This one I can relate to from personal experience: my own father was a career military officer. Several times when I was young, he was assigned to lengthy tours overseas. He always came back, but I assure you it wasn't fun when he was gone. I can only imagine what it's like for children whose parents will NEVER come back.

I doubt seriously that Bush, Cheney, the rest of the chickenhawks, and even those in the administration who served (e.g., Rumsfeld), give this so much as a thought.