The failure of western news media to name Afghan army and police personnel killed alongside members of international forces is something that has long bothered me, and I’ve made oblique reference to my unease in various blog comments about the continuing conflict. A few western governments have a policy of not naming their dead soldiers. but as far as I know this has never applied to Afghanistan. If so, that leaves journalistic laziness or worse as possible reasons for the omission in western news reports.

Hopefully things will change. The Danish cartoonist and illustrator Kellie Strøm cites a New York Times article which names dead Afghan soldiers and police officers, and quotes family members who tell the stories of their fallen loved ones. That is right and proper, and gives full meaning to the lives of these brave men and women.

We remember our dead, and should never forget the Afghans who fought and died with them.

Related: pictorial from Afghanistan in the Boston Globe.