September 11 families split over US toll in Iraq

by James Hossack Tue Dec 26, 8:25 AM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - The families of the September 11 victims gave a mixed reaction to the US military toll in Iraq passing the number of people who died in the attacks on New York and Washington five years ago.

For some, the grim milestone proved that the "war on terror" was a war that needed to be fought and won. Others said the chilling human toll only reopened old wounds, and raised questions about why troops were in Iraq at all.

Families of the 2,973 people killed in the attacks were divided about going to war in the first place and seemed similarly split over the significance of the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

For Adele Welty, whose firefighter son was killed in the World Trade Center, the level of casualties only proved that the war was a mistake.

"The more carnage that we experience from the standpoint of our military as well as the civilian casualties in Iraq, the more absurd the whole concept of this war appears to me," she said.

"I can't understand anybody supporting it now."

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