Today, the Administration is still trying to spin the vote on the Iraqi constitution–but no matter how it comes out, this war remains an unmitigated disaster. In fact, we don’t see, in the comfort of the U.S., the horrors of the war–and the language that obscures its devastation.

We read today about the U.S. airstrikes against “insurgents” that killed at least 70 people–and, yet, it appears likely that many, if not the majority of the killed, were civilians. Here’s what the military says: “All the attacks were timed and executed in a manner to reduce the possibility of collateral damage,” the military statement read, saying that there were no reports of civilian casualties.

The New York Times account tells us this: “But according to witness accounts at least 39 of those killed by the raids were civilians. The Associated Press, citing a local tribal leader and other village residents, reported that the people near the wreckage of the American vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb on Saturday were not insurgents planting more explosives but civilian onlookers. Several of those killed in the raid on the safe house were also civilians, The A.P. reported.”

Collateral damage: it’s a euphemism for killing people who inconveniently got in the way. It’s an inevitable outcome of sophisticated and overwhelming firepower being trained on cities and villages where people live. Young men and women are being ordered to carry out these missions on behalf of a immoral policy that is scarring the region and our country.

Which leads me to offer this report from the Institute for Policy Studies which catalogues the cost of the war.