Chris Walker, writing to the The Herald (webpage removed):
It’s one of life’s more savage ironies, but one which has become drearily familiar, that your headline “Death toll rises in Afghanistan” (Leader, The Herald, July 11) means British military fatalities.
These are given piquancy because they exceed similar losses incurred in Iraq. Thus the headline.
As a matter of fact, combined, they approximate the loss of Iraqi civilian lives only last week — repeat, week — in Mosul and Baghdad. But that’s how war’s rhythms (and its successes and failures) are calibrated. That hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have died since 2001 hardly raises an eyebrow, far less engendering a headline. But, then, death “over there” was held to be one of the reasons for invasion, and for stopping it “over here”, on the streets of Leeds, London or Glasgow. Or so it is said. Thus death over there, excepting ours, is inconsequential in our mindset: even a million deaths by invasion and occupation.