March 20, 2003.  The U.S. opens its war against Saddam Hussein.  That was one thousand days ago.  In those thousand days, 2347 coalition troops have been killed.  That's 2.3 every single day.   15,995 troops have been wounded in action.  That's 16 per day.  Total U.S. casualities are 18,141.  That's 18 per day.  President Bush indicated yesterday that 30,000 Iraqis have been killed.  That's 30 every single day or 10 9/11's in two plus years, all for a country less than 10% our size.  To relate what's going on in Iraq to our own situation, if this was our country, it would be 100 9/11's and 300 people killed a day.  Three hundred thousand U.S. citizens would be dead.  The United States has paid $204.4 billion dollars fighting the war, even while promoting tax cuts at home.  The World Bank estimates the cost of reconstruction alone to be 35 billion dollars.     82% of Iraqi's are "strongly opposed" to our presence.

Iran is operating a "fifth column inside the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, running death squads and operating a network of secret prisons."   According to U.S. General George Casey, the Iranians are "putting millions of dollars into the south to influence the elections ... it's funded primarily through their charity organizations and also Badr and some of these political parties."  The leader of the Badr Brigade doesn't deny it:  "We are funded by some (Persian) Gulf countries and the Islamic Republic of Iran. We don't hide it."   Can we do anything about it?  Apparently, no:  "Col. Joseph DiSalvo, who commands a brigade of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in eastern Baghdad, where there's a heavy Shiite militia presence, said it would be all but impossible for the American military to defeat the militias."

That's just the government folks--don't forget the insurgents:

It is extremely difficult to attack and defeat because it does not have unitary or cohesive structure or a rigid hierarchy within the larger movements. The larger movements seem to have leadership, planning, financing, and arming cadres kept carefully separate from most operational cells in the field. Accordingly, defeating a given cell, regional operation, or even small organization does not defeat the insurgency, although it can weaken it.

The insurgency has effectively found a form of low-technology "swarm" tactics that is superior to what the high-technology Coalition and Iraqi forces have been able to find as a counter. It can move slowly, in cycles, and episodically, and concentrate on highly vulnerable targets at the time of its choosing.

The ability to "swarm" against vulnerable civil and military targets at the time of the insurgent's choosing, and focus on political and media effects, sharply reduces the need to fight battles -- particularly if the odds are against the insurgents.

Needless to say, this war has not been worth the cost to anyone.  Except perhaps Halliburton, whose stock traded at $9 in mid-2002.  It is currently quoted at $66.96.

Oh, and Osama bin Laden is still at large.