"As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, America is bowing its head in remembrance of the nearly 3,000 victims. But adjust the lens for a wider view and a vastly greater mass of sacrifice and suffering can be seen, the direct result of 9/11 and the US response to it.

The country has been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq for almost 10 years, with a concomitant toll of death and injuries.

Between them the two wars have claimed the lives of 6,026 US service members. Many of the bereaved relatives, like Jim, come from small towns across the American heartlands where the burden of war falls disproportionately.

Many, also like her, are from ethnic groups that carry a military load that exceeds their demographic weight.

She is a Native American, whose members form a portion of the US active duty forces (1.7%) that is twice as large as their proportion of the US population (0.8%).

Jim lives in Shiprock, a town in the Navajo reservation of about 8,000 people, almost exclusively Native Americans.

Three soldiers from Shiprock have died in the wars. If you add in casualties from the nearby village of Fruitland (200 residents) and the town of Farmington (45,000), the number of dead rises to seven, six of whom were Navajo."

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Why Native Americans fight and die for same US army that slew their ancestors (The Guardian 9/6)