2,500

Tragic.

The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that 2,500 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq war since it began more than three years ago.

The grim milestone was announced just hours before the House was to begin a symbolic election-year debate over the war, with Republicans rallying against calls by some Democrats to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

In related news,

President Bush, just back from Iraq, dismissed calls for a U.S. withdrawal as election-year politics and refused to give a timetable or benchmark for success that would allow troops to come home.

I guess Bush doesn't believe it's possible that calls for the withdrawl of troops are based on the desire to see the killing end, especially when the troops are bravely fighting while their leaders have a hard time defining the conflict's goals, what constitutes "victory," or how long it will take to achieve that victory, whatever it may be.

No, in Bushworld it's election-year politics, even though calls for the withdrawl of troops have been made pretty much as long as the troops have been in Iraq and aren't all of recent, election-season vintage. Even though polls show that 61 percent of the American public, the vast majority of whom are not running for public office, disapprove of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, and that public disapproval has been in that range for more than a year.

So I guess it's 2,500 and counting.