Our View

Situation:

Today marks the five-year anniversary of U.S. troops engaged in war in Iraq.

Stance:

As we reflect on the thousands of lives lost, the lack of weapons of mass destruction and the president’s dismal approval rating, we question what is left to fight.

At this time five years ago, the initial stages of U.S. military operations in Iraq began.

Newspapers across the country had massive headlines and gave it coverage of immense proportions.

Sadly, the conflict is still on-going, with our military personnel facing the possibilities of still being sent to Iraq.

And now, we reflect back upon this conflict that has, at times, divided our nation, our political leaders and citizens and has sparked intense debate.

Here are some numbers to consider:

At least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq, as of Tuesday, since the conflict started five years ago to this day, according to the Associated Press.

That means since major combat operations started March 19, 2003 at 8:34 p.m. CST, which was 1,827 days ago, an average of two military personnel have died every day since.

To put a more local face on the loss, since January 2007, 29 soldiers from Illinois have lost their lives in Iraq, according to CNN, including Pfc. Danny L. Kimme, 27, from Fisher.

Kimme was one of three soldiers killed on Jan. 16, 2008 when they were attacked by grenade and small-arms fire during combat operations in Balad, Iraq.

Cpl. Allen C. Roberts, 21, from Arcola lost his life in Al Assad, Iraq, on Nov. 28, 2007, during a vehicle accident.

Pfc. Robert A. Ligget, 23, from Urbana died from injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident in Rustamiya, Iraq, on May 29, 2007.

Spc. Francis M. Trussel Jr., 21, from Lincoln, died of wounds suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his position in Tahrir, Iraq, on May 26, 2007.

Pvt. Cole E. Spencer, 21, from Gays, was one of three soldiers who were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb and small arms fire during combat operations in Salman Pak, Iraq, on April 28, 2007.

These men, as well as women, have lost their lives too soon. CNN has counted 4,297 total coalition deaths since the war began.

Along with the death tolls, a National Post article claimed 65,000 wounded soldiers and between 90,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths – all in five short years.

Among the non-American deaths include two Australians, 175 British soldiers, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch soldiers, two soldiers from Estonia, one soldier from Fiji, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadorans, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians as of Wednesday.

And, according to President Bush, all major military operations officially ended May 1, 2003. That was merely 1,784 days ago.

According to the Defense Department, 29,395 U.S. military service members have been wounded in hostile action.

The toll this war has brought onto our country is undoubtedly enormous. Our economy is suffering as a result of spending $3 trillion to fight the second-longest war to date next to Vietnam, according to an article last week in the Washington Post.

Questions arise nearly every hour of every day as to what we are doing in Iraq still, five years later. Saddam Hussein is dead. No weapons of mass destruction have been found.

Bush has pledged to maintain the course, but what course is still left after five years?

Bush has felt the wrath of the American public like almost no other president in our history has.

A look at his approval ratings in the USA Today/Gallup poll shows a disturbing trend that should embarrass our president.

A poll taken March 22-23, three days after the Iraq invasion started, his approval rating was at a stellar 71 percent.

Since then, it slowly decreased, all the way to an all-time low of 29 percent in a poll taken July 6-8 last summer.

The last poll, taken Jan. 30-Feb. 2 this year, showed only a slight increase to 34 percent.

Those numbers, along with all the others presented, are disheartening for the American public.

And it doesn’t take much to figure out the correlation between Bush’s decline among Americans and the start of the Iraq war.

Let’s just hope five years from now on March 19, 2013 – the 10-year anniversary of the Iraq war – that newspapers will not be writing again about the staggering American and coalition.