It’s coincidental and sad that over the past

three years U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria have killed almost 3,000 civilians. This carnage receives little to no attention in U.S. news media.

President Trump rightfully laments the loss of every American citizen lost to terrorism. But, in the name of defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, we have inadvertently killed as many innocent lives in three years as foreign terrorists have killed Americans over decades.

I understand that our president has pledged to put America and American lives first, but Arab and Muslim civilian lives also have value. We can’t simply declare “the end justifies the means” to legitimize and validate these tragic human losses. We must do a better job of avoiding human loss. It is the right and moral thing to do. Ken Derow Swarthmore, Pa.