This Goes Out To You, This Goes Out To You, This Goes Out To You And You And You...

Total number of American soldiers lost between Friday May 14 and Sunday May 16 = 8.

Total mentions of their deaths on A Small Victory, Vodkapundit and Instapundit = 0.

To be fair, the Vodkapundit basically took the weekend off. But the A. Reynolds program was online and engaging in it's usual chest-thumping proclamation of victory in Iraq. Tell that to the families of the 8 men who lost their lives this weekend.

And while Michele at A Small Victory took time out on Friday to chastise liberals for not caring about the death Nick Berg enough, and time out on Monday to chastise liberals for not loving America enough; she took no time in between to chastise herself and others for downplaying the causualties in Iraq. In the interest of fairness, she did post this in honor of Armed Forces Day.

Let's be clear: the only justice Zarqawi and his fellow al Qaeda deserve comes at the business end of an M-4. However, spare me the self-indulging, more patriotic than thou attitudes. As Americans, the death of Nick Berg steeled our reserve, making us more even determined to defeat terrorism; precisely the reason pro-Bush blogs like Instapundit and A Small Victory are playing it up. Conversely, the death of American soldiers in Iraq makes us question the war's purpose and success; the very reason those same blogs that spoke so frequently of the death of one American give absolutely no coverage to the deaths of eight.

At things fall apart, our sense of patriotism comes from a strong belief in the laws and freedoms upon which this country was founded. It does not come from waving a flag or wearing a ribbon; it does not depend on others knowing that we are patriotic.

In short, take that crap elsewhere. It doesn't play here.

UPDATE: Apparently Michele feels she is absolved of this charge because she linked to an AP story about the troop deaths on another site. In other words, unlike Nick Berg, the death of eight American soldiers did not inspire her to post several lenghty, impassioned rants on her personal site. Fair enough.