Reflections on the U.S. loss of 1,000 soldiers in Iraq

The United States passed a somber milestone this week. The death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq exceeded the 1,000 mark.
Officially, the White House announced on Tuesday that the 1,000-death mark had been reached. Its count included 997 soldiers and three civilian employees of the Defense Department.
Of those, 759 died as a result of hostile action and 246 died of non-hostile causes. The British military has reported 64 deaths; Italy, 18; Spain, 11; Poland, 10; Bulgaria, six; Ukraine, six; Slovakia, three; Thailand, two; and Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and the Netherlands have reported one death each.
The U.S. milestone came during a week in which nearly 20 American troops were killed.
There is something unseemly about attempting to juggle numbers when each of those numbers represents the loss of a life of inestimable value. Each of those numbers represents a family shattered by the death of a beloved son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister.
Seeking perspective
But numbers are important. They help people put things in perspective. And perspective is something the American people are struggling to bring to the war in Iraq.
One thousand deaths is number that causes Americans to pause and take stock. Yet, there were months during the war in Vietnam when that many soldiers died. There were days in World War II on which more than 1,000 American soldiers were killed. On average, throughout the 31/2 years in which the United States fought in World War II, 1,000 troops died every four days.
The unsettling aspect about the number of combat deaths in Iraq is that they are continuing at a rate and over a duration that was unanticipated by the American people -- or even by the most pessimistic military analysts.
Ongoing mission
During the first two months of fighting last spring, leading up to President Bush's ill-advised participation in a "Mission Accomplished" photo opportunity on an aircraft carrier, 138 troops died. By contrast, 148 U.S. military personnel have been killed since the partial transfer of sovereignty on June 28.
Securing the peace in Iraq appears far more elusive today than it did when military operations began. Today, cities in Iraq -- indeed, sections of Baghdad -- are under control of insurgent forces. The prospect for peaceful elections, which are to be held early next year, appear to be increasingly bleak.
What's happening on the ground in Iraq is causing people in the United States, in this week during which the threshold of 1,000 deaths was passed, to ask what the plan is to secure the peace and to stop the loss of life.