Doing the math

Another four U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq late today, putting the official U.S. death toll over 4,000. Yes, it's unbelievably tragic. Those 4,000 Americans have spouses and children, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters — and all of them will never forget George W. Bush's war, even after the nasty politics have faded into history. But let's not forget — this is the cost of war, and we can't have one without the other. The only thing the citizens get to decide is whether it was worth it, and only after the fact. And let's also not forget the tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed and remember that it doesn't really matter what side they were on — their spouses, children, parents and siblings won't ever be able to forget, either. Bush may truly have no regrets, as he said in a March 19 speech marking the fifth anniversary of the start of the war, but that's not the way it feels to people of both countries who have been forced to bear the losses.