4,311 U.S. troops killed in Iraq

"A U.S. soldier has died following a grenade attack on his patrol in Diyala province, northeast of the capital Baghdad and one of Iraq's most dangerous areas, the U.S. Army said on Friday. The soldier survived the attack Thursday but died later in the evening, a statement said without giving further details. The army is only weeks away from a June 30 deadline to leave Iraqi cities and major towns ahead of a complete withdrawal from the country by the end of 2011, as part of a security accord signed between Baghdad and Washington. In a separate statement, the U.S. military said a marine had died in a non- combat related incident Friday. The deaths bring to 4,311 the number of U.S. troops killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein but sparked a deadly insurgency, according to an AFP count based on the independent Web site http://www.icasualties.org/."

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If anyone had told you in 2006 that a Democratic-led Congress would fund U.S. troops in Iraq for another 5 years, until the end of 2011, would you have believed them?

Worse yet, since the "anti-war" presidential candidate won in 2008, we've not only retained the Bush/Cheney military leadership, but we've stuck by the Bush/Cheney Iraq war policy.