Taken Too Soon: The Cost of War

Taken Too Soon: The Cost of War is produced by Paul Ingles, who runs a non-profit media organization called Good Radio Shows, Inc. The program features some of the names and circumstances of the deaths of coalition forces, Iraqi and Afghan civilians, contractors and journalists killed since the fighting began in Afghanistan in October of 2001 and continuing up to the present day. "I don't think there's been a program like this that has acknowledged the loss of life among civilians, contractors and journalists along side of military casualties," says Ingles. "I just felt it was important that people marking Memorial Day in the U.S. take a moment to contemplate a roll call that goes beyond just our own country's loss. All most Americans have heard is that 15, 8, 30 Iraqis died in a certain incident on a given day. These people had names and families just like the men and women of our armed forces. It seems appropriate to me to read some of their names." The hour long program will contain about 135 names meant to represent the various casualty constituencies. A soldier from each state in the U.S. is included. Ingles used Defense Department information for the names of coalition casualties. Civilian, contractor and journalist names were drawn from press reports and websites devoted to tracking those deaths. Ingles put an email call out to members of the Association of Independents in Radio asking for volunteers to help voice the special. Within a few days, he'd heard back from nearly 40 producers who said they'd be willing to voice a couple of minutes of names for the program. "Since the program will consist primarily of a list of names, I thought it would sound better to have a variety of voices involved," adds Ingles. "Also I think it will create a sense of how we all are impacted by this loss of life." Ingles estimates that the hour long program will contain about 135 names meant to represent the various casualty constituencies. "Sadly," says Ingles, "a complete reading of names at this pace, even with conservative estimates of civilian deaths, would require about 400 hours." (Porgram produced in May 2006)