Michelle Malkin got a letter from the uncle of a Marine mentioned in the New York Times article about the 2,000th military death. The Marine, Cpl. Jeffery B. Starr, had left a letter on his laptop for his girlfriend to read in the event of his death. The Times quoted part of the letter in its story:

Sifting through Corporal Starr’s laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine’s girlfriend. ”I kind of predicted this,” Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. ”A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances.”

But as Starr’s uncle pointed out, what the Times left out is astonishing:

He wrote: “Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I’m writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances. I don’t regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it’s not to me. I’m here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.”

I think that’s a pretty good answer to this guy’s question — but don’t hold your breath waiting for him to erase Starr’s name from his cartoon. And don’t expect the Times to tell these uplifting stories — they just don’t fit the Times’ agenda.