Four US soldiers killed in Iraq, death toll 4,000
(Updates with quotes, background)
BAGHDAD, March 24 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in southern Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, bringing the number of U.S. military deaths to 4,000 since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The statement on Monday said one U.S. soldier was wounded in the attack on the patrol.
What impact the grim milestone will have on a war-weary American public and the U.S. presidential campaign will be hard to assess in the short term, but war critics are likely to seize on it to bolster their case for U.S. troops to withdraw.
The U.S. military dismisses such tolls as arbitrary markers.
"It is artificial in the sense that somehow the 4,000th tragic loss somehow will be different from the first," U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith told Reuters in an interview last week.
"I don't want to say that we shouldn't recognise that as a milestone. It's something that we're not focused on and certainly not going to attribute any more or any less to than any other soldier's death," he said.
Anthony Cordesman, a respected Iraq analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said he expected the 4,000 death to trigger "another wave of polarised debate".
"Those who oppose the war will see it as further reason to end it. Those who support it will point to military progress and say that future casualties will be much lower," he said.
Although Americans are more preoccupied with domestic economic troubles, the Iraq war is still a central issue in the presidential campaign, with Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama calling for a timetable for early withdrawal.
U.S. President George W. Bush said in a speech marking the 5th anniversary of the war on March 19 that the United States was on track for victory and said a withdrawal of some 160,000 troops now in Iraq would embolden al Qaeda and neighbouring Iran. (Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Stephen Weeks)
BAGHDAD, March 24 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in southern Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, bringing the number of U.S. military deaths to 4,000 since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The statement on Monday said one U.S. soldier was wounded in the attack on the patrol.
What impact the grim milestone will have on a war-weary American public and the U.S. presidential campaign will be hard to assess in the short term, but war critics are likely to seize on it to bolster their case for U.S. troops to withdraw.
The U.S. military dismisses such tolls as arbitrary markers.
"It is artificial in the sense that somehow the 4,000th tragic loss somehow will be different from the first," U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith told Reuters in an interview last week.
"I don't want to say that we shouldn't recognise that as a milestone. It's something that we're not focused on and certainly not going to attribute any more or any less to than any other soldier's death," he said.
Anthony Cordesman, a respected Iraq analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said he expected the 4,000 death to trigger "another wave of polarised debate".
"Those who oppose the war will see it as further reason to end it. Those who support it will point to military progress and say that future casualties will be much lower," he said.
Although Americans are more preoccupied with domestic economic troubles, the Iraq war is still a central issue in the presidential campaign, with Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama calling for a timetable for early withdrawal.
U.S. President George W. Bush said in a speech marking the 5th anniversary of the war on March 19 that the United States was on track for victory and said a withdrawal of some 160,000 troops now in Iraq would embolden al Qaeda and neighbouring Iran. (Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Stephen Weeks)
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