Show respect

To the editor:

I wish the electronic and print media would refrain from using the word “troops” when referring to individual soldiers in combat, as in a recent AP story in the Journal-World, “Thirty-six female troops have died since the war began.”

Calling soldiers, male and female, “troops” further contributes to the depersonalization and dehumanization of the Iraq war, on a par with calling civilian casualties “collateral damage” during the Vietnam conflict.

These are human beings we’re talking about, so let’s at least preserve their dignity in life as in death.

Eva Edmands,

Lawrence