What a great, and very sad New Year’s gift from our President.
(CNN) — The U.S. military on Sunday announced its 3,000th fatality from the Iraq war.
The identity of the 3,000th military death could not be precisely determined as the exact times of deaths late last week were not immediately available.
On Monday, the military said two soldiers were killed Sunday in an explosion in Iraq’s Diyala province, north of Baghdad, bringing the death toll to 3,002.
The U.S. military death toll includes seven civilians working for the Department of Defense.
More than 22,000 other U.S. troops have been wounded in Iraq since the war began nearly four years ago.
The war has also claimed the lives of about 250 allied troops, more than half of them British.
Estimates of Iraqi dead range from about 50,000 to several hundred thousand.
The 3,000th death was announced a day after the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, whose government collapsed as U.S. troops entered Baghdad, and as President Bush ponders a change of strategy in the increasingly unpopular conflict.  (Read full story)