U.S. Military Death Toll Hits 3,000

(CBS/AP)  American deaths in the Iraq war reached the sobering milestone of 3,000 on Sunday even as the Bush administration sought to overhaul its strategy for an unpopular conflict that shows little sign of abating.

The latest death came during one of the most violent periods during which the Pentagon says hate and revenge killings between Iraq's sects are now a bigger security problem than ever.

The death of a Texas soldier, announced Sunday by the Pentagon, raised the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to at least 3,000, according to an Associated Press count, since the war began in March 2003.

Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 19, of Spring, Texas, was killed by small arms fire in Baghdad late last week. The announcement caps the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq in the past year.

"The hardest decision the president ever has to make is to send our men and women into harm's way," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel, with Mr. Bush in Crawford, Texas. "The president believes that every life is precious and grieves for each one that is lost. He will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain."

In other developments:

Former dictator Saddam Hussein was buried before dawn in his hometown of Ouja. Hundreds attended, but thousands were turned back at police checkpoints. Ouja, near Tikrit, is under curfew for at least four days.

With U.S. deaths at the 3,000 mark, the U.S. military is accelerating plans to turn its main mission in Iraq from fighting insurgents to training Iraqi forces and hunting al Qaeda terrorists. President Bush is also considering the "surge" option — increasing temporarily the number of U.S. combat troops from its current 134,000 by 25,000 or more in hopes of securing the capital Baghdad to boost chances for political reconciliation.

Two prominent Senate Republicans bucked the White House on Sunday, expressing skepticism about more U.S. troops in Iraq and support for greater dialogue with Iran, Syria and others in the region. Sen. Richard Lugar, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged President Bush to consult with lawmakers before announcing a new strategy on Iraq that could call for additional troops in Iraq. Sen. Arlen Specter, just back from a trip to the region, also questioned the wisdom of sending in more troops, saying he has not seen an administration plan that would justify it.

President Bush is struggling to salvage a military campaign that, more than three-and-a-half years after U.S. forces overran the country, has scant support from the American public. In large part because of that discontent, voters gave Democrats control of the new Congress that convenes this week. Democrats have pledged to focus on the war and Bush's conduct of it.

Three thousand deaths are tiny compared with casualties in other protracted wars America has fought in the last century. There were 58,000 Americans killed in the Vietnam War, 36,000 in the Korean conflict, 405,000 in World War II and 116,000 in World War I, according to Defense Department figures.

Even so, the steadily mounting toll underscores the relentless violence that the massive U.S. investment in lives and money — surpassing $350 billion — has yet to tame, and may in fact still be getting worse.

A Pentagon report on Iraq said in December that the conflict now is more a struggle between Sunni and Shiite armed groups "fighting for religious, political and economic influence," with the insurgency and foreign terrorist campaigns "a backdrop."

From mid-August to mid-November, the weekly average number of attacks in the country increased 22 percent from the previous three months. The worst violence was in Baghdad and in the western province of Anbar, long the focus of activity by Sunni insurgents, said a December report.

Though U.S.-led coalition forces remained the target of the majority of attacks, the overwhelming majority of casualties were suffered by Iraqis, the report said.

The American death toll was at 1,000 in September of 2004 and 2,000 by October 2005.

Mr. Bush told an end-of-the-year press conference that the deaths distress him.

"The most painful aspect of the presidency is the fact that I know my decisions have caused young men and women to lose their lives," the president said.

"We will be fighting violent jihadists for peace and security of the civilized world for years to come. The brave men and women of the U.S. military are fighting extremists in order to stop them from attacking on our soil again," Stanzel said.

Mr. Bush was spending the holiday weekend at his Texas ranch.

In an interview on Dec. 21 with The Associated Press, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the war was "worth the investment" in American lives and dollars.

In his strategy reassessment, President Bush has consulted Iraqis, his uniformed and civilian advisers, an outside bipartisan panel that studied the failing war, and other defense and foreign policy experts. New Defense Secretary Robert Gates journeyed to Iraq in his first week on the job in December to confer with American commanders and Iraqi leaders.

Among the president's options was a proposal to quickly add thousands of U.S. troops to the 140,000 already in Iraq to try to control escalating violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Others believe too much blood and money already have been sacrificed. Democrats have wanted Bush to move toward a phased drawdown of forces, while the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended removing most U.S. combat forces by early 2008 while shifting the U.S. role to advising and supporting Iraqi units.

Having launched the war against the advice of a number of nations, the Bush administration never got a huge international contribution of troops, meaning foreign forces helping the Iraqis are overwhelmingly American.

The death toll shows it. As of late December, the British military has reported 126 deaths in the war so far; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 18; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; and Denmark, six. Several other countries have had five or less.

[ghareeb2-2009]

TO TRUEPRPGRESS : I'M SPEAKING ABOUT THE DIRTY WAR IN IRAQ , you missed the point we're talking about,besides,I'm in Egypt already and you're talking with disgusting racism,you consider yourself a western woman,no sorry,you lost your identity,and I doubt that u're Muslim,you're nothing now.Don't give judgments from overseas,please read more about what's going on,try to understand why?...try to learn somthing from history...don't be so pleased with your ignorance,and please repeat this sentence twinty times before sleeping ( Mr Bush is idiot )...then you'l feel that you're smart after 51 years,greets from Egypt.

[heetseeker]

"A Destiny We Do Not Control"

I wonder if the strategist planning the "new way forward" realise that we no longer call the shots in Iraq. Rather, we are one of a number of factions operating within a fragmented stucture. Surely, the so-called "new way forward" is just another delusion or at worst a deception.

Here are four reasons why:
1. No militarily solution - although we have the most sophisticated war machine and finest troops in the world, nearly 5 years into the war we have yet to tame a determined enemy deploying "dumb" munitions. Our own generals have put it like this: "Iraq is not winnable militarily."

2. The will of the Iraqi's - at the moment the Iraqi's are playing out their own "vision" of the future. It is sectarian, violent and fuelled by historical tensions of which we know little and can do absolutely nothing about.

3. Syria & Iran - there will be no peace in Iraq (of any description) without Syria and Iran being part of that solution. At the moment the administration refuses to speak to either nation and in response both have ensured that Iraq remains ungovernable. Syria and Iran have as much, if not more influence in Iraq as we do.

4. We are seen as part of the problem - with intervention comes expectation. 5 years into the war, beyond a government that cannot seem to govern and troops whose loyalty is questionable, little has been achieved by the US led invasion. Our troops are now a cause of violence and tension. Our days in Iraq are numbered.

[trueprogress]

To Gareeb- I am an Arab woman who refuses to be placed third behind the donkey. I grew up in free Canada, and lucky to break away from that insane culture.
Arab laws are anti women. You have honor killing in Arab countries so any woman can be slaughtered by the father or brother if her "passion" dishoners the family. Your gov't are very, very intolerant, Look how many Christians have been driven from Lebanon by Hezbollah, and assasinated the leaders. The West Bank under Hamas has outlawed YMCAs, and Bethleham has been cleanesed of the Christian population. Jews ? In Europe, the young Islamic mob tortured a young Jewish boy picked at random, for weeks and then killed him. Very little said. And more. And more. Jewish women are targeted for terrorism far more than soldiers. I am speaking out as a true progressive, Iso-Islamic Woman , but have had threats made because I dare to be free of male dominated dark ages tryanny.

And Gareebturbinhead - man, you are moral idiot. IDIOT.
Go back to Egypt.

[defirststate]

3of3
Denial can be a valid short-term reaction to uncomfortable reality, but it becomes a problem in its own right if it becomes a habit. He plays his patriotism against anyone remembering his champagne flight admission to the closed to entry Texas Air Guard, there must be some good reason to risk any other people%u2019s life and limb instead of his own, since he's such a patriot. He's not really a quivering coward, He's Not! Bush uses slogans and zingy one-liners to stir the patriotic spirit to help extend both his and the peoples' state of denial. It goes back to the beginning of this not so brief epistle that gwb is almost addictive the regular repetition becomes comforting. Repetition of a mantra reinforces believability, that's why it has taken so long for a majority of Americans to make it past the symbolic distractions to the stark reality that he has honest to God been telling whopper after whopper. Maybe the big lie is really more likely to be bought into as truth.

In the New Year, I'll try to be more considerate with those who haven't gotten through the obstacles so carefully placed in their way to the reality that the lies are piled high atop each other. I'm equally sure that when I fail, someone will point it out to a traitor, idiot or moron such as I.

I apologize for the length of this post, I'll work on brevity. To all of good heart, Happy New Year!

[defirststate]

We should be able to believe our Presidents. It is not nor should it be easy for an American to accept that our leader has violated our trust, but even harder to acknowledge that the honor and the integrity of our patriotic forefathers has been defiled. It's almost as if the President has committed an atrocity with the flag or another of our national symbols. It's like taking a punch in non-6pack abs. I can understand why some Americans can't come accept the God awful truth that he lied. It's easy to forget my internal moral journey to accept it. It is not an experience that Americans should need to endure over something like education or taxes social programs or laws, as bad as that would be. For a President of the United States to do so over something that will result in death and serious injury to the brave men and women of our military and countless others in a purely elective war is an absolute abomination. I tend to lose track of decorum after I've looked at the pictures of those men and women who have been killed and read their bios as they become available. When I think of the soldiers who dealt with the cold at Valley Forge, the heat fighting Rommel and all the other he11holes where they have died to leave this nation to future generations, so that this "who does he think he is" can lie to start a war, I get pissed. I forget how hard it was to get past the obstacles to realizing that the SOB has been playing 3 card Monty with the nation. The sociopathic fu ker lied.

[defirststate]

1of3
My gratitude, respect and wishes for a safe and Happy New Year to all our brave military members, wherever you serve. God Bless each of you!

2007 seems a lot like 2006. gwb is still almost a form of addiction, he uses phrases that recall our justified pride in America to lead us down unworthy paths. It's called manipulation of symbols. Reagan was the master combining the best of PT Barnum with the skills he learned as an actor. A speech by the President to a Joint Session of Congress, with the Speaker and the Vice-President behind him, the flag, the historic house chamber, the traditional introduction, "Mr. Speaker, The President of the United States," provide the ultimate patriotic frame for the word pictures the President paints. Our national group consciousness subliminally sends us the feeling of pride in our founding fathers and all the good that has started in that place that put us where we are. The chest-expanding throat-tightening awe of it all make it difficult to think that anybody would be so disrespectful to our Nation and our heritage as to be able to lie to us in that setting. Our automatic responses are correct, it should be next to impossible to do it. Hope, faith, trust and forgiveness are all important parts of our character as a people. After the State of the Union, those same responses are recreated in other settings. At a press conference, the intro and the brisk stride to the podium are subliminal reminders of the more formal setting.

[book54552134]

It never ceases to amaze me the number of chickenhawks who gleefully stand & cheer on the sidelines while other people send their children to fight (& die)in a war of which these chickenhawks are supportive, mainly because they are polictical loyalists of the statis quo. These people need to enlist in the military. The Army is looking for people like them.

[ghareeb2-2009]

I'm Egyptian,history is now recording that America is committing the biggest crime since the last one in Hiroshema.The American soldiers(some call them heroes)are killing innocent people in Iraq,more than 600 thousands killed by the american coward soldiers or through the stupidity of the biggest fool (Bush),america foolishly created a very complicated situation in Iraq using the delusion of the (mass destruction weapons) (the biggest lie in history).
now America cann't go out of Iraq,the soldiers are screaming like old ladies,and the american flesh seems very tasty in Iraq,besids America inside is still unsafe,because revenge is not taken yet.a uniqe situation in history,more soldiers to hill for nothing and Usama bin Ladin is watching tv in peace and thnking for the his next step. you'r stupid criminal Mr Bush, ND YOU BELIEVERS AS WELL.

[stick130]

{The brave men and women of the U.S. military are fighting extremists in order to stop them from attacking on our soil again}. Why does the media keep repeating these bush lies? Not one Iraqi has attacked on American soil. Need to put bush on trial just like Sadam. They both caused tens of thousands of deaths.

SharnCedar:

Hitler at one time relied on his generals to do the fighting (and winning) for him. His mistake came when he decided that he knew better than all of his generals, and as soon as a general would tell Hitler the truth, he would be sacked.

Bush has some of those characteristics - a megalomaniac.

Despite the fact that Bush is the Commander in Chief, he has this mistaken belief that he knows how to lead an army.

Bush would be better off letting his generals make the decisions and him supporting them in those decisions.

Maybe if he had, things would be different in Iraq.