Four thousand is a manageable number. Well, more than 4,000 — and growing daily — but, manageable.

Four thousand is slightly more than the seconds in an hour or the minutes in a work week. It’s half the population of Tyler County and a block in most boroughs in New York.

However, completions change when a face is put to the number, the Butcher’s Bill of American deaths in Iraq.

Two weeks ago that’s what happened.

Local boy (just like when youth are told never to trust anyone over 30, it’s hard for those of us in or past our third decade to refer to anyone younger as a man) Jesse Ault was killed in Iraq while in the service of his country.

Whether number 4,001 or 4,387, his face is all Tyler Countians saw as they remembered backyard ball and school functions. Here was a reminder that the news on the front page of the major dailies does strike home.

For time immemorial men have marched off to war, whether conscripts, numbers on a lottery ticket or volunteers. Some have fought for their beliefs, others for their country’s beliefs, but all are part of a bigger machine oiled with taxpayers’ dollars and patriotic phrases.

This time it’s as a peace keeping force set on avenging and preventing attacks upon the United States from terrorist factions intent upon embarrassing and causing as much death and destruction by the fewest number of offenders.

But, this time it’s not a Civil War, either World War, the Korean Conflict or Vietnam. This time the popularity of the action isn’t measured in bond drives or protests. It’s measured in dollars attached to barrels of oil.

Occupation has become entrenchment as the war becomes more and more of a police action akin to Northern Ireland. History has shown that when one people attempts to impose their will on others with force, the end result is always strife.

This November the same people footing the bill for the effort will have the opportunity to voice their opinions in the most positive way — at the polls, as a new administration is selected.

It’s the American way and what Ault gave his life for, so we may enjoy the freedoms that so many young men and women have paid the ultimate price for in lands near and far. He, and the other, deserve our participation.