Three thousand

By Michael J.W. Stickings

What a way to end the year:

The Pentagon announced the death of a Texas soldier on Sunday, raising the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to at least 3,000 since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.

The milestone was crossed on the final day of 2006 and at the end of the deadliest month for the American military in Iraq in the past 12 months. At least 111 U.S. service members were reported to have died in December.

No matter what form Bush's new strategy for "victory" in Iraq takes -- and he is likely to present it soon -- there is no winning this war. Three thousand American troops have been killed, many thousands of Iraqis have been killed, and there is now civil war.

The focus should be on getting out, not on prolonging the madness.

But the madness will continue. And more milestones will be crossed.

For such is what Bush's great failure has become.