Five Years, 4,000 Dead and Counting

We passed the fifth year of the war last week and today was the 4,000th casualty of that war. Here's the story from USA Today.

There seems to be little end in sight to this. Unless of course there is a change at the presidential level. In other words a victory by the Democrats.

There is also a great opinion piece also in USA Today about the lack of sacrifice on anyone's part besides those in the military, their families and friends. I have long thought that the United States is not at war; its military is. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq only touch the average American's life by what he watches on the news.

The piece in USA Today makes some very good points:

... more important than noting how many have died is to remember what an extraordinarily unfair share of the burden those fighting in Iraq have borne. Never has most of the country been so spared the personal suffering of so long a conflict.

And this point really hits home:

The real answer is that if most Americans were asked to sacrifice in serious ways, their support for the war — already weak — would likely erode even more. Only by asking very little has the administration been able to sustain a war that was supposed to be over in weeks or months.

It could not have been said any better.