"Darling, when you read and hear about the wonderful gains our army is making, keep in mind it just didn't happen--that many guys gave a lot of blood, even lives, to gain that objective. Don't forget that--even when the newspapers say "our losses are negligible."
Keith Winston (edited by wife, Sarah Winston)
V-Mail: Letters of a World War II Combat Medic
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 1985
p. 176
Oh my gosh! Even when I thought negligible meant "few" I couldn't count any death above zero as negligible. How do you tell a parent, "I'm sorry your son died in combat--but he was the only one in our company . . . ?"
Then I actually looked up the definition of negligible. "Worthy of neglect; trifling." --American Heritage Dictionary.
I'm several decades late for writing an editorial, but let me make myself clear. I disagree!
Lonnie
