Multiply them by four, the 1,002 mainly young Americans killed in Iraq — just since Jan. 1, 2007 — whose photographs filled four pages in Tuesday’s New York Times. Then multiply that number by grieving fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sweethearts, sons and daughters.

The 4,000 (and counting) dead to date "represent the highest toll since the Vietnam War," according to The Times, which dedicated similar coverage to earlier 1,000-death milestones. One of the soldiers singled out for this week’s memorial, Daniel J. Agami, a handsome young man pictured with an Israeli flag, is described as havng "used his Jewish faith to build tolerance among troops and shatter sterotypes. The newspaper is to be commended for performing this community service: making us literally see what we all have lost in this terrible war, the smiling and hopeful faces.

We must not be like the wicked child in the Haggadah, asking, with a shrug, "What does this mean to me?"

A better question is to ask, "What can we do? What can we do so that another 1,000 smiling young Americans — and countless Iraqis — do not meet this fate?"

First, being Jews, we can say Kaddish — for all the untimely dead. Second, being Jews, we can say a mishaberach for the soldiers still in the field.

And then, being Jews, we can get to work to make a difference. The Philadelphia-based Shalom Center suggests that we write to all three candidates for president, senators all, and urge (the Shalom Center uses the word "demand," but we think that’s a bit unpolitic) them to take action to bring the war to an end. The dead don’t vote, but the living who love them do.

But why stop there? Write to those candidates who dropped by the wayside. They may yet revive to run for vice president. Write to our own senators and congress members. Write to former Vice President Al Gore, who as a newly minted Nobelist has a special kind of clout. And speaking of Nobelists, write to Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama, et al. Write to the pope, for heaven’s sake. Write!

And while you’re at it, you might suggest that money saved on war and death benefits could be better spent on saving lives through some kind of national health-care system.

After all, the Talmud teaches those who are willing to learn, "Whosoever saves one life saves the world entire."