Six Years Ago Today

Six years ago today, Pres. Bush announced the commencement of our preemptive military operations in Iraq. Bush’s remarks included the following:

Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.

We will meet that threat now with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of firefighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities.

Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. And I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures and we will accept no outcome but victory.

The American death toll in Iraq now exceeds 4,258. The number of Iraqi casualties is horrific.