“It’s a Number”

White House press secretary Tony Snow had this to say when asked for the President’s reaction to news that the U.S. military had suffered its 2500th death in Iraq:

“It’s a number,” said Tony Snow, the White House press secretary.

“Every time there’s one of these 500-benchmarks, people want something,” Snow added at his near-daily press briefing at the White House. “The president would like the war to be over now. Everybody would like the war to be over now.”

He’s got a point. 2500 is a nice round number, but it’s not terribly significant by itself, except to the news media. 2500 deaths is just an arbitrary number, worse than 2499 deaths but not as bad as 2501 deaths.

Then again, the So-Called “Austin Mayor” Blog has a point too.