What does it say about the Sun Journal editors’ responsibilities that in the Sept. 21 issue I found buried in paragraph nine of an article on page C13 the sentence, “U.S. officials reported 10 more Americans were killed – six of them members of the armed forces, raising to more than 1,900 the number of U.S. service members who have died in the country since the invasion”?

Last year at this time, as the death toll approached 1,000, such statistics would have been front-page news. Instead, a story on page one was about recalcitrant college fraternities. “Hell no, frat won’t go,” shouts the headline.

On page C13, the headline whispers, “British, Iraqis spar on rescue; U.S. toll climbs.” The administration may have the power to prevent the press from publishing photographs of American casualties, but news editors presumably remain free to showcase articles on page one according to their newsworthiness.

Is it possible we have become inured to the atrocities of war? College fraternities? War casualties?

Be serious.

John C. O’Brien, Waterford