Numbers don't tell the whole story

There is no doubt that 2009 was a tough year for our men and women in uniform, especially in Afghanistan. As USA Today notes in a breakdown of Pentagon casualty statistics, 302 American servicemembers lost their lives in Afghanistan in 2009, far more than any other year during our lengthy battle against terrorism in that country. 148 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, the lowest total since coalition forces invaded in 2003.

Yet an end-of-year wrap-up like the aforementioned USA Today article, counting casualties and not mentioning a single name of a fallen hero, again shows the lack of perspective offered by the media in covering the post-9/11 struggle. While the numbers should be reported, they do not give a full view of the progress being made in both countries, or the many successes that go unnoticed by the press, like helping build a school, making a new contact in a village that could eventually lead to the capture of prominent Taliban, or lending a hand to a child. To the credit of USA Today writer Tom Vanden Brook, he quotes a Heritage Foundation analyst who basically calls him out.

Counting casualties in Afghanistan or Iraq is an "idiotic" measure of success or failure, said James Carafano, a military analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Success in Afghanistan will be judged by how much of the population is safe from the Taliban and how Pakistan deals with havens for insurgents on its side of the border. "Casualties in Afghanistan are likely to go way up at least initially," he said. "That's because we will be taking the fight to the enemy. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing."

Here is what I will remember about 2009. While U.S. troops, led by Gen. David Petraeus, won the war in Iraq in 2008, this is the year the doubters were silenced. While brave men and women still gave their lives for freedom in that country, Iraq has clearly become an incredible success story that many thought impossible during the toughest years of that war from 2005-2007. It remains astonishing that liberal activist group MoveOn.org once took out an advertisement, which The New York Times inexcusably printed, labeling the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq as "General Betray Us." Smearing any soldier for political gain is disgraceful, but in this case, the group attacked a man who will perhaps be remembered as the hero of the Iraq war.

As President Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal adopt an Afghanistan "surge" strategy similar to the Bush-Petraeus policy in Iraq, major challenges are ahead in the central front in the war on terror. While the media labels 2009 as a failure in the country, I see incredible stories of sacrifice and progress that did not get enough attention during the year of Michael Jackson. From Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti being awarded the Medal of Honor for giving his own life to save others on the battlefield to Liberian native Sgt. Albert Ware signing up to fight for his new country, extraordinary examples of putting God and country before personal gain are abound. Soldiers like 1st. Lt. Brian Bradshaw and 1st Lt. Tyler Parten went to Afghanistan not just to win a war, but to help children in need, and died while honoring that cause.

How about when evaluating 2009, we remember all these men and women and what they stood for, instead of just reciting statistics?