Long, hard slog indeed

General Peter J. Schoomaker, Army Chief of Staff, said today that the United States Army will most likely be deployed to Iraq until 2010 at the current troop levels. Currently, the United States has 141,000 troops in Iraq. The bulk of the troops deployed, 120,000 are U.S. Army soldiers. Those soldiers are divided among 15 Army combat brigades and their support units.

"This is not a prediction that things are going poorly or better," Schoomaker told reporters. "It's just that I have to have enough ammo in the magazine that I can continue to shoot as long as they want us to shoot."

As Schoomaker spoke today, the death toll of Americans in Iraq passed 2750. An attack on Americans occurs every 15 minutes in Iraq. Those seriously injured number greater than 25,000 by most sources. Americans are spending two billion a week on the effort, and charging it to a Chinese backed credit card.

No saccrifices on the homefront have been asked. No rationing. No mandatory national service. No discussion of this country getting any more serious about a war effort than putting a yellow ribbon on ones car. And they are magnetic, so as not to damage the finish of the paint beneath, should they fall out of fashion. That's commitment, lemme tell ya. That's saccrifice of the highest order.