It's tragic how many people have died in the war in Iraq so far (also here). What's more tragic are some of the Military and administration quotes trying to play down the number of deaths.

"Taking the offense … of course has its cost, just as staying on defense has its cost," Rumsfeld said before the White House had announced the death toll. "And soon the American forces are likely to suffer the 1,000th casualty at the hands of terrorists and extremists in Iraq. When combined with U.S. losses in other theaters in the global war on terror, we have lost well more than 1,000 already."

He added: "If you think about the fact that we have thousands of patrols every day … if you take all of those patrols, and look at the number of incidents, they're relatively small." (LA Times)