Closer look at the wars in numbers

USAToday.com produced a graphic where readers can look up the number casualties in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. They can be searched through name, age, gender, race, state, city, branch, duty status, rank, date, cause of death and place of death.

There are two tabs at the top left where either Afghanistan or Iraq can be chosen. To the right of the search options is a graphic with many little squares, each one representing one death. If you scroll over them a bubble will pop up with the name, gender, rank and other information on the particular servicemember.

Screenshot of USAToday.com

It can be a little unsettling because on most of them a picture pops up of the person. It really puts a face to the numbers and brings the war home to Americans. Some people might find this too much, and unfair to the families or those who passed. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I do think it is important that it puts a face to these numbers we hear about every day. They also do it in a discrete way. It is the reader's choice to scroll over those dots, so it's not USAToday.com forcing it upon us.

The graphic was produced by USAToday.com's Paul Overberg, Lou Schilling, Chad Palmer, Ron Coddington and Joshua Hatch. The numbers, they note, come from the U.S. Defense Department, so they point out the numbers may not match what is in the media.