| THREE YEARS AND THOUSANDS OF DEATH LATER |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Tuesday, March 21 2006 |
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| I still remember the daily headlines on the war in Iraq reporting that one American soldier had been killed. It went on for months after President Bush declared the end to major combat operations in Iraq on May 1, 2003. Not a single day went by that we didn't read or hear about one more American casualty; every once in a while, the number would rise to two or three. At the time, no one spoke about Iraqis dying.
What a difference three years makes. Nowadays, the headlines tell a different story: "Suicide Bomber Kills Seven Near Fallujah," "21 Marines Die in a Two-Day Period," "130 Dead in Series of Attacks in Iraq," "Iraqi Authorities Discover 87 Corpses," "Iraq is on the Verge of Civil War."
The number of casualties in the war in Iraq is staggering. More than 2,300 American troops have been killed, and almost 17,000 have been injured. More than 200 members of the "coalition" have lost their lives. More than 100 journalists and members of their support teams have died covering the war. And, in the most conservative estimates, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died violent deaths.
President Bush marked the third anniversary of the Iraq War by kicking off a series of speeches asking Americans to have patience. He's warned of difficult days ahead. He continues to express confidence that his strategy will result in victory. He assures Americans that the security of our country is "directly linked" to the liberty of the Iraqi people.
The president has said it many times -- he doesn't follow polls, nor does he base his decisions on them. If he did, he might be changing his strategy for victory, or changing his speeches. Recent polls show that Bush's job approval rating is at an all-time low. And his acceptance level seems to be directly linked to the war in Iraq.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Bush has an approval rating of 36 percent. Even among Republicans, his approval rating has gone down 16 points since last year. Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of Iraq, and 57 percent now think it was a bad idea to go there in the first place. Most think the president has no clear plan for Iraq.
There is no higher cost in war than the loss of lives, but putting a monetary figure on the conflict makes it look like a bottomless pit. Until now, more than $250 billion has been spent. The Department of Defense estimates that it is spending approximately $4.5 billion per month on the conflict. That would be about $100,000 per minute. A study by two leading economists estimates that the cost of the war will climb to $1 trillion, or possibly $2 trillion. That estimate takes into account the cost of treating the injured for life, and the impact of things like rising oil prices on the economy.
There is probably no point in going over and trying to make sense of the various reasons the Bush administration has given throughout the past three years for going to war. It is a frustrating exercise. What we can do is ask if the Iraqi people are better off than they were three years ago. I'm sure the majority would say they are better off without Saddam Hussein. However, their freedom from the so-called Butcher of Baghdad has come at a high cost. Poverty in Iraq has risen by 20 percent, childhood malnutrition has doubled and, worst of all, the country has been overtaken by terrorists who were not there before March 19, 2003.
As we go into year four of the war, we must face the realization that the world is not safer as a result of the armed conflict, and the United States is no less vulnerable to another terrorist attack than we were before Sept. 11, 2001. |
