It’s strange how the smallest things can bring something home. The death of a serviceman from the Queen’s Royal Lancers in Iraq took the total number of UK service personnel who have died since the start of hostilities in Iraq to 128.
That’s hell of a lot of people, but for some reason the figure failed to resonate with me. That is until the Press Association, which supplies all our national and international copy, filed a list of the dead.
My colleage tried to open it, but was stopped by the message: Can’t open a file this big.
Suddenly, those few words made me realise the tragic waste of life caused by the conflict.
We have, of course, reported each death as it has happened, and while you never forget, you always push to the back of your mind that these are 128 sons and daughters, husbands, wives, mums and dads.
It makes you wonder. How many more?
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