And that doesn't include the 1,500 and counting US troops killed in Afghanistan since the start of fighting there.Five American soldiers died Monday when a barrage of rockets slammed into a base in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad — the largest, single-day loss of life for U.S. forces in Iraq in two years.
The attack follows warnings from Shiite militants backed by Iran and anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that they would violently resist any effort to keep American troops in Iraq past their year-end deadline to go home. [...]
The five fatalities Monday were the most in a single day since May 11, 2009, when five troops died in a noncombat incident. On April 10, 2009, six U.S. troops died — five in combat in the northern city of Mosul and one north of Baghdad in a noncombat related incident.
According to an Associated Press tally, 4,459 American service members have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003.
Isn't it time--more than time--to bring our men and women home from Iraq and Afghanistan? Do we really need to be involved in three foreign wars at this point in history? Is there any just reason to remain in these countries and continue to put our men and women in harm's way?