U.S. military death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Earlier today, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two unidentified Marines in fighting with insurgents last week in a village west of Baghdad. The deaths raised the Associated Press tally of military fatalities to 2,000 in the Iraq war, which began in March 2003.

President Bush warned the nation to brace for an even higher casualty count as the mission has more work remaining to be successful.

"The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced, unconstrained by any notion of common humanity and by the rules of warfare," the president said in a speech before the Joint Armed Forces Officers' Wives' luncheon in Washington. "No one should underestimate the difficulties ahead."

And

The Iraqi death toll is unknown, but estimates range much higher.

Iraq Body Count, a British research group that compiles figures from reports by major news agencies and British and U.S. newspapers, has said that as many as 30,051 Iraqis have been killed since the war began. Other estimates range as high as 100,000.


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I've been railing away here at Real Art at how illegal, immoral, and unnecessary this awful war is since before it began, nearly three years ago. Those were weird days: anti-war folk were branded by many as being only a stone's throw away from treason; many more believed opposing the invasion was anti-American or stupid at best. Now, most people know better, but the killing and dying continues. Today's milestone is really only a numerical symbol. The killing and dying goes on every day. I'd be sickened if I hadn't become so used to it.

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