It seems to me that so many Americans are concerned with our troops being in Iraq, particularly because our troops keep getting killed. Out of curiosity, I looked up the number of casualties due to the "Iraq War", and I'm surprised at what I find. Firstly, I find that the difference between the minimum and maximum killed is vast. However, I also find that many more civilians have been killed than have soldiers and "insurgents" combined. Here are some numbers:

U.S. Armed Forces: 4,273 killed, 31,153 wounded
Journalists: 225 killed, 14 kidnapped, 2 missing
Media Support Workers: 51
Aid Workers: 95
Iraqi Security Forces: 11,453
Contractors: 1,308 killed, 10,569 wounded, 18 missing
Iraqi Civilians: 654,965 (per study done by Johns Hopkins University)

Total Violent Deaths As A Result of Conflict: 1,033,000 people

The lowest commonly agreed-upon estimate I can find for the total deaths resulting from violence happening on or since the U.S.-led invasion in the spring of '03 is around 100,000 dead, with the maximum reaching all the way to 1.1 million.

   One million people is a little hard to believe, but when we have seven or more studies agreeing that the lowest count isn't below 100,000, I start to wonder. I wonder why America has such a hard time dealing with our occupation in Iraq. I wonder, because the people who mourn our soldiers the most seem to be the ones who champion the cause of our invasion and subsequent "war". Do the ones who mourn our loss realize that Iraq has lost somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 people as a result of the violence and chaos which began in 2003? The official U.S. military casualty count as of March of this year was 4,268 soldiers.

   Money Lost

   The U.S. has also spent, and lost, billions of dollars fighting in Iraq. The Congressional Research Service estimates our spending at about $2,000,000,000.00 a week (that's 2 Billion), while economist Joseph Stiglitz (recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics) estimates the cost closer to $12,000,000,000 a month. What's more, the money we're spending on the war is borrowed money. According to the Congressional Budgeting Office, the Iraq War could end up costing us $2,400,000,000,000.00 ($2.4 trillion) by 2017 (thanks to interest), with only $1.9 trillion going to Iraq and $500,000,000,000 just going to pay the interest on borrowed money.
   Stiglitz has further noted that "...the total costs of the Iraq War on the US economy will be 3 trillion dollars ($3,000,000,000,000) in a moderate scenario, and possibly more." He goes on to say, "The figure we arrive at is more than $3 trillion. Our calculations are based on conservative assumptions. They are conceptually simple, even if occasionally technically complicated. A $3 trillion figure for the total cost strikes us as judicious, and probably errs on the low side. Needless to say, this number represents the cost only to the United States. It does not reflect the enormous cost to the rest of the world, or to Iraq."

   Success Rate

   According to the U.S. Military, we've taken out a total of about 16,842 insurgents since the beginning of the invasion. Call me pessimistic, but those don't look like very good numbers.

   Something To Think About

   As the total passed 450 Billion dollars, the cost for the Iraq war reached approximately $1500 usd per person in the United States. If the Iraq War were to wind up costing 1.9 trillion dollars, the cost would be over 4.2 times higher ($6,300 per United States citizen.) This would put the expense at $25,000 for an average family of four (or $32,000 per family if Afghanistan is included.)

   As a comparison, with this money he estimates that one could have built 8 million houses, paid 15 million teachers, paid for the child care of 530 million kids, paid for the scholarship of 43 million students, or offered social safety net for 50 years to Americans. Stigltz also said that United States help for Africa (the ENTIRE CONTINENT) is only $5 billion yearly, soon to be superseded by China. $5 billion correspond to only the spending of 10 days for the war by the United States.

   In Conclusion

   So in conclusion, why are we in Iraq? What's the real reason? Why have we risked, and lost, so much? More people die in African and Asian countries than Iraq every year thanks to preventable problems, like starvation and infection, but you don't see America saying, "Hey, we need to help these people!"

   What makes Iraq so different, that we felt like saying, "Hey, we need to help these Iraqis..."