The 4,000

As the American death toll in Iraq reaches four thousand, the New York Times looks at Six of the Fallen, in Words They Sent Home.

Back in 2003, I said we needed to get the job done and bring our people safely home. But four thousand of them won't ever be coming home and many times that number have returned from Iraq with debilitating injuries.

Some people will use these numbers to assert that the cost of the war has been too high and that we need to disengage, others will argue that we need to stay the course to ensure they did not die in vain.

I know it is too much too ask that we conduct such arguments somewhere other than over the bodies of our dead - the issue is too important and the cost in human lives (American and Iraqi) is, of course, a major consideration.

Nevertheless, irrespective of your attitude towards the war, I'd ask you to take some time out from politics today and give some thought to those who have given their lives in the service of their country. Some thought also, to the wives and husbands they left behind, to the children who will grow up without them and to their parents who have lost something dearer to them than life itself.

Their sacrifice humbles us all.