US Military Deaths Officially Reach 2000

Story from Bloomberg.com
Oct. 25 - U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached 2,000 amid rising debate over whether the benefits of the two and one-half year conflict outweigh the casualties and cost.

A majority of Americans for the first time said the U.S. military's effort in Iraq isn't going well, a poll by the Washington-based Pew Centre showed this month. And, also for the first time, a majority of Americans in a Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive poll said going to war in Iraq was a mistake, the Journal reported today.

The war has been costly in terms of money. With Senate passage of the fiscal 2006 budget earlier this month, Congress has approved a total of $361 billion for military operations, reconstruction and other expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a report Oct. 3 by Congressional Research Service.

President Bush said;

``Our commitment is clear,'' Bush said in a speech to the wives of military officers at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington. ``We will not relent until the organised international terrorist networks are exposed and broken, and their leaders are held to account for their murder.''

But the C.I.A. completely contradicts the spin from the White House;

A Central Intelligence Agency assessment in June said Iraq had become a more potent breeding ground for Islamic terrorists than Afghanistan was in the 1980s.

Meanwhile the Civilian death toll in Iraq between 26700 and 30100
Iraq Body Count