Grim milestone: 4,000 U.S. service employees dead in Iraq war

a.. NEW: As Iraq war enters sixth year, American death toll rises to
4,000
b.. NEW: Four U.S. soldiers killed when their vehicle was hit by an IED
c.. At least 30 Iraqis died Sunday; 80,000 to 150,000 or more killed
since war's start
d.. Iraq security adviser said Sunday that Iraq war is "well worth
fighting"
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Four U.S. soldiers died in a roadside bombing in
Iraq on Sunday, military officials reported, bringing the American toll in
the 5-year-old war to the grim milestone of 4,000 deaths. Eight of those
killed were civilians working for the Pentagon.
The four were killed when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive
device while patrolling a neighborhood in southern Baghdad, the U.S.
military headquarters in Iraq reported Sunday night. A fifth soldier was
wounded in the attack, which took place about 10 a.m. (3 a.m. ET).
The U.S. milestone comes just days after Americans marked the fifth
anniversary of the start of the war.
Meanwhile, estimates of the Iraqi death toll range from about 80,000 to
the hundreds of thousands, with another 2 million forced to leave the
country and 2.5 million people displaced within Iraq, according to the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
President Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq on March 19, 2003, after
months of warnings that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was concealing
stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and efforts to build a
nuclear bomb.
U.N. weapons inspectors found no sign of banned weapons before the
invasion, and the CIA later concluded that Iraq had dismantled its weapons
programs in the 1990s.
Hussein's government fell in early April 2003, and Iraq's new government
executed him in December 2006.
The news of the 4,000 mark came on the same day that Iraq's national
security adviser urged Americans to be patient with the progress of the
war, contending that it is "well worth fighting" because it has
implications about "global terror."
"This is global terrorism hitting everywhere, and they have chosen Iraq to
be a battlefield. And we have to take them on," Mowaffak al-Rubaie said
Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."
"If we don't prevail, if we don't succeed in this war, then we are doomed
forever," he said. "I understand and sympathize with the mothers, with the
widows, with the children who have lost their beloved ones in this
country.
"But honestly, it is well worth fighting and well worth investing the
money and the treasure and the sweat and the tears in Iraq."
Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and the war has cost U.S.
taxpayers about $600 billion, according to the House Budget Committee.
The conflict is now widely unpopular among Americans: A CNN-Opinion
Research Corp. poll out Wednesday found only 32 percent of Americans
support the conflict. And 61 percent said they want the next president to
remove most U.S. troops within a few months of taking office.
In the weekly Democratic radio address Saturday, Sen. Bob Menendez of New
Jersey said President Bush "took us to war on the wings of a lie."
Menendez said that the war has depleted the resources and morale of the
U.S. military; diverted national attention away from the war in
Afghanistan, where al Qaeda is regrouping; and hurt the hunt for Osama bin
Laden. The Iraq war has not made Americans safer, Menendez said, but has
instead hurt the U.S. economy.
The senator called for a "responsible new direction" regarding Iraq.
CNN learned last week, from several U.S. military officials familiar with
the recommendations but not authorized to speak on the record, that senior
U.S. military officials are preparing to recommend to Bush a four- to
six-week "pause" in additional troop withdrawals from Iraq after the last
of the "surge" brigades leaves in July.
"If the conditions on the ground dictate that we have to have a pause,
then we will have to have a pause," al-Rubaie said.
The return of all five brigades added to the Iraq contingent last year
could reduce troop levels by up to 30,000, but still leave approximately
130,000 or more troops in Iraq.
Al-Rubaie emphasized Sunday that any drawdown of U.S. troops "has to be
based on the conditions on the ground."
"It depends on the development and the growth and the equipment and the
capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, and the preparedness of the
Iraqi security forces," he said. "This should not be a purely political
decision. It should be also a technical, military and intelligence
decision."
But there has been too much "foot-dragging on key governance questions in
Iraq," Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said on CNN on Sunday. "It
seems to me you put off those troop withdrawals, you send exactly the
wrong message to the Iraqis."
On Wednesday, Bush will visit the Pentagon to be briefed by the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, chaired by Adm. Michael Mullen.
The American troop level in Iraq "depends on the negotiations that we are
engaged in now between the government of Iraq and the United States
government," al-Rubaie said.
When conditions warrant the withdrawal of American troops, the Iraqis will
say "'Thank you very much, indeed,' " al-Rubaie said. "A big, big thank
you for the United States of America for liberating Iraq, for helping us
in sustaining the security gains in Iraq ... and we will give them a very,
very good farewell party then."
Responding to recent remarks from U.S. presidential candidates that Iraqis
are not taking responsibility for their own future, al-Rubaie said Iraqis
are making political and security gains.
"Literally by the day and by the week, we are gradually assuming more
responsibility," he said, noting that Iraqis have taken responsibility for
security in many provinces.
Other developments:
. U.S. troops raided a suspected suicide bomber cell in Diyala province on
Sunday, killing a dozen militants, half of whom had shaved their bodies --
which the U.S. military says indicates they were in the final stage of
preparation for a suicide attack. Diyala province stretches north and east
of Baghdad and has been a major front for U.S. troops fighting militants.
. Several mortars landed in Baghdad's International Zone on Sunday,
according to the Interior Ministry. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said there
were no major casualties.
. A suicide car bomb exploded at a fuel station Sunday in a predominantly
Shiite neighborhood in northwest Baghdad, killing seven people and
wounding 12 others, the Interior Ministry said.
. A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives outside the main
gate of an Iraqi military base in Mosul, killing at least 10 Iraqi
soldiers and wounding 35 people, including 20 soldiers, Mosul police said.
The U.S. military put the death toll higher, at 12.
. A mortar round landed in a Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad,
killing seven people and injuring nine others, a ministry official said.
Six more mortar rounds landed in other Bag

Grim milestone: 4,000 U.S. service employees dead in Iraq war
=A0 a.. NEW: As Iraq war enters sixth year, American death toll rises to 4=

=A0 b.. NEW: Four U.S. soldiers killed when their vehicle was hit by an IE=

=A0 c.. At least 30 Iraqis died Sunday; 80,000 to 150,000 or more killed s=

war's start

=A0 d.. Iraq security adviser said Sunday that Iraq war is "well worth
fighting"

estimates put Iraqi dead at over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 since yesterday 4 pm.

On Mar 23, 9:34 pm, "Reality_Check" <Real...@Check.it> wrote:
according to DVA over 73,000 Mrrrkn deaths
estimates put Iraqi dead at over 1,000,000 since the USREAL invasion.