The human costs, over there

There are, of course, human costs to Americans from the war in Iraq, and we don't hear enough about them. We hear even less, though, about the human costs to Iraqis in Iraq. The brilliant and talented Ann Friedman helps to fill that vast void with a piece highlighting the importance of hearing about what it's like on the ground -- that is, not just from a political perspective, but from a personal one. As she says:

The news outlets that still report from Iraq rarely publish accounts of daily life there. Rarer still are narratives from outside the confines of the Green Zone. Sure, we get snippets of information from Iraqi reporters working with Western journalists, but most of the time, Iraqis' voices come to us in the form of react-quotes after a marketplace bombing or sectarian uprising. We don't see what it's like for Iraqis to walk home from the scene of the violence, then make dinner, then put their kids to bed. We lack the humanizing power of detail.

Democracy is founded on the will of the people, and for that will to be true and just, it must be informed. People have the right and the responsibility to know the facts about the actions of our nation and its leadership, and the realities of Iraq are a critical -- and too often overlooked -- element of who and what we are and want to be as a nation. Not to mention, y'know, a huge part of the day to day story.