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So, just so I'm clear, you're comparing 4000 dead from a WAR to 4000 dead from a STORM? And that we should continue to justify WAR (and the deaths that occur) because STORMS will even them out? Is that what you're really saying?
Not only is he saying that, but he's calling it context.
...plus, I'm saying war opponents, at least those of the Durbin/Sheehan fruitcake variety, are incapable of considering context.
The Bush administration's inability to consider context when invading Iraq and deposing Saddam is what led to the "unforeseen" consequences of unfriendly insurgents flooding the country, and the creation of the imbalance of power that has resulted in the quagmire in which we're enmeshed there.
Context involves consideration of other factors, like regional power structures, feuding factions, and exports on which we depend (oil), that will affect the consequences of an action. Comparing two entirely unrelated situations is called juxtaposition; the case you described could also be termed a non sequitur.
You are clearly not of the fruitcake variety, and you raise valid points. Bush should have acted decisively to address the insurgency. Instead he vowed to fight the most humanitarian war ever. That was a recipe for disaster.
Nevertheless, to track every single death and every single milestone casuality is the nonsequitor (because casualties are the given in any conflict). That is my point, and it does not include such criticism of the war that you offer above.
Thanks for your compliment, and for not calling me a fruitcake. But you were the one who brought up the number of casualties in Iraq in this thread--and I don't believe Dick Durbin or Nancy Sheehan has brought up the number of deaths in relation to the cyclone in Myanmar, either.