When the statistics on 2006 are closed, they will reveal that something on the order of 44,000 Americans died of influenza, as they did in 2005, 2004, and 2003, for a total of 176,000 during the period we have been in Iraq.
This little fact puts things in a little perspective.
This article, others like it, and the statistic itself is being used to manipulate public opinion towards the view of the press who favor surrender and retreat. Proof of this is in the number itself: 3000 only represents casualties in Iraq and includes non-combat deaths of disease and accident. The figure does not include combat deaths in Afghanistan, another theater in the same war. Did we so differentiate between Pacific and European theaters in WWII?
The dead cannot speak for themselves, but those who know them, served with them, and who truly mourn their passing can speak their minds far better than these journalists - and they say strongly that their sacrifice should not have been in vain.
If we walk away from this struggle, we will pay in blood for our folly, and the numbers will be like the influenza figures, if not ten times more.
Bookmarked for all the great comments.