Casualty

This story of Rakan Hassan is not a metaphor for the waste and futility of the goddamn Iraq war. This one young boy and the huge effort needed to save his single token life doesn't represent anything. The sentimentality of making a difference for one family after we ripped them apart has no meaning outside of its single story. His death, after all that we Americans did to him and then for him, tells us nothing about the stupidity and cupidity of trying to change the world at the point of a gun.

Right.

But there are thousands of other Iraqi orphans. Maybe we could pick out another to rescue.

Think about the word 'casualty'. This story is the sort of life story you have to be casual about to choose to fight a war. Because once you've lit the fuse, you can't rescue all of them.