The main street media likes to put out the number of killed American troops in Iraq to try to sway the general public to their side. To explain where I'm coming from on this topic and to try to avert the rage of readers before it starts; In my mind even one violent premature death at anyones hands is one too many.

That being said, sometimes war is a necessary evil. Without war we would still be ruled by a king, Hitler and the Nazi Party would rule the world, we might be under communist rule and we would still have slavery.

4,000 is a lot of deaths and my heart goes out to all their families for their sacrifice. All of them and the other 1.5 million military members who have served in Iraq are hero's in my book. Is the price too high? Let's compare this to other American wars:

• WWII had over 405,000 American deaths
• Civil war 620,000
• Revolution 34,000
• Vietnam 47,000

So in terms of other conflicts this one is relatively mild. The comparable statistic that really brings it home for me is the number of violent deaths on American streets in the same time period. The number of murders in the United States is approximately 15,000 per year. In the 5 years of the Iraq conflict 75,000 people have been killed on the streets of America for no good reason what so ever.

That's right for every American death in Iraq there are 18.75 deaths on the streets of America.

And what are American's dieing for in the streets for? Drugs, Money, and other foolish things. What are the sacrifices of American soldiers doing for us? Keeping Islamo Fascism at bay. Trying to stabilize a region and establish a democracy for the people of Iraq. And they have succeed in removing an evil dictator from power. There also hasn't been an attack on American soil since 9/11/2001.

So before you take the main stream media at face value and join the surrender and run crowd. Take a minute to think about it and salute and honor those that served and see their mission through.