Monica Davey's article in tomorrow's New York Times--"For 1,000 Troops, There Is No Going Home"--does an excellent job of giving meaning to the number currently dominating the news from Iraq. There are statistics in the article--the average age of the American casualties is 26; more women (24) have died in Iraq than in any American war since World War II--but there are also many personal stories. It's the kind of article that both critics and defenders of the war in Iraq need to read in order to resist the temptation to think in overly abstract terms about arguments for either changing or staying the course.