Every Day 3 US Soldiers Die In Iraq

The occupation of Iraq continues as its civil war rages on. US troops sit in the middle of the conflict. At our current troop level, they are not able to stop the fighting but are simply a target for both sides in the conflict. To date, 3,605 US soldiers have been killed.

The last three months have been especially bloody, with more than 100 American soldiers killed in each month. So far, Bush's "troop surge" has been a miserable failure. Instead of quelling the violence, the surge seems to have provoked even greater violence.

So far this year (through July 8th), 602 US soldiers have been killed. This is an average of 3.185 soldiers killed each and every day for the last six months, and there is no reason to believe this rate will be reduced any time soon.

Bush has told us that he has no plans to pull our troops out during his administration. If this is true, that means at least 1795 more US soldiers will be killed before Bush leaves office in January 2009.

Another 1800 dead Americans! And for what? So the giant oil companies can make huge windfall profits off Iraqi oil? So Bush can salvage some personal pride and not have to admit he made an awful blunder? Are these goals really worth killing 1800 more Americans and putting the total number of American deaths over 5,400?

We cannot wait for Bush to leave office. The American people oppose this illegal occupation, and elected Democrats in the hope they would stop the killing. But so far nothing has been done. This must change!

The Democrats tell us they don't have the votes in the Senate to pass their "timetables". That may be true. But they do have enough votes to block any further funding of the war. All they need is the political courage to do it.

I know some Democrats believe if they cut off the war funding they will lose votes in next year's election. However, I believe if they continue to demonstrate their political cowardice and continue to let Bush push them around, they will lose far more votes. Americans do not like cowards and never vote for them.

We must stop the war funding and force Bush to bring our troops home now. Each day we delay means three more Americans will die. We must stop the killing now!