Happy Independence Day

Today, right now, somewhere in the U.S.--maybe several places--there are two officers in dress uniform pulling up to someone's house, knocking on a door, telling a family that their husband or father or son or brother or sister or wife or mother was killed in Iraq. Maybe it was a roadside bomb. Maybe a sniper. Maybe friendly fire, though those officers aren't authorized to say so and probably don't even know. And for every set of officers doing this horrible duty, there are two or three dozen dead Iraqis whose families never receive such a courtesy.

All of this, we're told, is to protect us. We're spreading democracy. We're making the world a safer place.

Do you feel safer?