Four Thousand Reasons To Leave

Sunday may have been a day of easter egg hunts and young children getting their picture taken with the Easter bunny, but it was far more grim in the streets of Baghdad and Iraq as a whole. As a few of our soldiers made their way down a Baghdad street, a bomb brought four of their young lives to a close. In that instant four families lost a loved one and the nation counted it's four thousandth death in this avoidable tragedy that has gone on for more than five years.

From Yahoo News:

The American deaths occurred Sunday, the same day rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.

An Iraqi military spokesman said Monday that troops had found rocket launching pads in different areas in predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad that had been used by extremists to fire on the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.

"We hope to deal with this issue professionally to avoid civilian casualties," said spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi.

The four soldiers with Multi-National Division — Baghdad were on a patrol when their vehicle was struck at about 10 p.m. Sunday in southern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Another soldier was wounded in the attack — less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the conflict.

Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, expressed condolences to all the families of soldiers killed in Iraq, saying each death is "equally tragic."

Yes Mr. Evans, each death is equally tragic, yet we continue to accrue equally tragic casualties in this misbegotten folly of a war. Easter may have been a happy day for many that believe in the Easter bunny, but not for those four families that had their worst fears realized....and the 3,996 families before them.