Aside from politics, the war in Iraq that began in 2003 has a haunting human side.
More than 4,400 U.S. military personnel have died and about 32,000 have been wounded, many so severely their lives have been significantly altered forever.
Estimates for Iraqi deaths range from a little over 100,000 to more than 1 million, a range made extraordinary by the difficulty of record-keeping in a war-torn country.
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been displaced and the country’s infrastructure has been disrupted to the point that availability of utilities often is a day-to-day proposition.
According to the National Priorities Project, the United States has spent $750 billion through today to prosecute the war.
That would be enough money to fund two years of college education for every U.S. high school graduate this year, or build 30,000 critical access hospitals such as the one proposed for Allen County.
— Bob Johnson
