Four U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, death toll 4,000 +

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032302380.html

Four U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, death toll 4,000 +

Sunday, March 23, 2008; 11:35 PM

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in southern Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, bringing the number of U.S. military deaths to 4,000 since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The statement on Monday said one U.S. soldier was wounded in the attack on the patrol.

What impact the grim milestone will have on a war-weary American public and the U.S. presidential campaign will be hard to assess in the short term, but war critics are likely to seize on it to bolster their case for U.S. troops to withdraw.

The U.S. military dismisses such tolls as arbitrary markers.

"It is artificial in the sense that somehow the 4,000th tragic loss somehow will be different from the first," U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith told Reuters in an interview last week.

"I don't want to say that we shouldn't recognize that as a milestone. It's something that we're not focused on and certainly not going to attribute any more or any less to than any other soldier's death," he said.

Anthony Cordesman, a respected Iraq analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said he expected the 4,000 death to trigger "another wave of polarized debate."

"Those who oppose the war will see it as further reason to end it. Those who support it will point to military progress and say that future casualties will be much lower," he said.

Although Americans are more preoccupied with domestic economic troubles, the Iraq war is still a central issue in the presidential campaign, with Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama calling for a timetable for early withdrawal.

U.S. President George W. Bush said in a speech marking the 5th anniversary of the war on March 19 that the United States was on track for victory and said a withdrawal of some 160,000 troops now in Iraq would embolden al Qaeda and neighboring Iran.

(Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Stephen Weeks)

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032301505.html

US Military Deaths in Afghanistan at 419

By The Associated Press

Sunday, March 23, 2008; 7:51 PM

-- As of Sunday, March 23, 2008, at least 419 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures March 15 at 10 a.m. EST.

Of those, the military reports 287 were killed by hostile action.

Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 63 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.

There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.

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The latest deaths reported by the military:

_ No deaths reported.

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The latest identifications reported by the military:

_ Air Force Airman Tech. Sgt. William H. Jefferson, Jr., 34, Norfolk, Va.; died Saturday near Sperwan Ghar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an explosive; assigned to the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, Pope Air Force Base, N.C.

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On the Net:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

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Comment: By now I hope that most thinking Americans have come to the logical humane conclusion that the Amerikan Occupation in Iraq and the Middle East must come to an end. We cannot fix it when we cannot come together and fix what is broke here now inside the United States. There are many domestic problems that need to be faced and solved. It is not a left-wing versus right-wing game. It is a matter of what is right on a moral humane basis and what is dead wrong.

Fuhrer Bush and his sidekick Cheney are both insane fascists who have been allowed to stay where they are because of the apathy, indifference and tolerance of the Amerikan people. If we allow insane mad man to govern this country what does that make us? Amerika must change for the better and remember the humane democratic principles of its founding fathers ~ many of whom were themselves slaveowners!

Karma catches up with all of us! Let your karma be good karma!
From One Humane Being ~Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta

Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

C/S

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