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Bush: Prepare for more U.S. casualties in Iraq DEATHS • COnnnilCD FROIDI American people know it,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. Sen. Robert Byrd, a veteran Democrat from West Virginia, said Americans should expect “many more losses to come.” “More than 135,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. They did not ask to be sent to war, but each day, they carry out their duty while risking their lives. It is only reasonable that the American people, and their elected representatives, ask more questions about what the future holds in Iraq,” Byrd said. President Bush warned the U.S. public to brace for more casualties in the fight against “as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced, unconstrained by any notion of common humanity and by the rules of warfare.” “No ’ one should underestimate the difficulties ahead,” Bush said in a speech Tuesday before the Joint Armed Forces Officers’ Wives’ luncheon in Washington. As a sign of those challenges, one of Iraq’s most ruthless terror groups — al-Qaida in Iraq — claimed responsibility for Monday’s suicide attacks against hotels housing Western journalists and contractors in Baghdad, as well as suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq. In the latest casualty reports, the Pentagon said Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died Saturday in San Antonio of wounds suffered Oct. 17 in a blast in Samarra, a city 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two unidentified service members — a sailor and a Marine — in fighting last week in a village 25 miles west of Bilal Hussein /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Iraqis pray next to the coffins of US airstrike victims in Ramadi, Iraq, last Monday. U.S. warplanes and helicopters bombed two villages near the restive city of Ramadi, killing an estimated 70 militants, the military said Monday, though residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians. oagnaaci. i nose announcements brought the U.S. death toll to 2,000, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. It was unclear who was the 2,000th service member to die in Iraq since the U.S. military often delays death announcements until families are notified. On Monday, for example, the U.S. command announced that an unidentified Marine was killed in action the day before — after the deaths of the three service members reported Tuesday. In an e-mail statement to Baghdad-based journalists, command spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan said media attention on the 2,000 figure was misguided and “set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives.” He described the grim statistic as an “artificial mark on the wall” and urged news organizations to focus more on the accomplishments of the U.S. military mission in Iraq. For example, Iraqi officials announced Tuesday that voters naa approved a new constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum, laying the foundation for constitutional, democratic Iraqi government after decades of Saddam’s tyranny. “I ask that when you report on the events, take a moment to think about the effects on the families and those serving in Iraq,” Boylan wrote. “The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone.” Boylan said the 2,000th service member to die in Iraq “is just as important as the first that died and will be just as important as the last to die in this war against terrorism and to ensure freedom for a people who have not known freedom in over two generations.” He complained that the true milestones of the war were “rarely covered or discussed,” including the troops who had volunteered to serve, the families of those that have been deployed for a year or more, and the Iraqis who have sought at great risk to restore normalcy to their country. Since wars start, Iraqis have suffered many more war dead than Americans Jim Krane THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The number of Iraqis who have died violendy since the U.S.-led invasion is many dmes larger than the U.S. military death toll of 2,000 in Iraq. In one sign of the enormity of the Iraqi loss, at least 3,870 were killed in the past she months alone, according to an Associated Press count. One U.S. military spokesman said it is possible the figure for the entire war could be 30,000 Iraqis, which many experts see as a credible estimate. Others suspect the number is far higher, since the chaos in Iraq leaves the potential for many killings to go unreported. The losses are far larger than most analysts and Pentagon planners expected before the war and mean Iraqi civilians are bearing most of the suffering. “We may never know the true number of the Iraqi public that has been killed or injured in this war,” said the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan. “The Iraqi public has taken the brunt of the casualties.” Every day claims more victims: A car bomb targeting American troops that kills Iraqi passers-by. An insurgent attack on a police station. Sectarian militias dumping blindfolded corpses in the Euphrates River. Civilians made up more than two-thirds of the Iraqis killed in war-related violence since the country’s first elected government took power on April 28, according to the AP count. The rest were Iraqi security personnel. Boylan said the U.S. military keeps its own tally of Iraqi dead, but does not release it. He said he had asked U.S. authorities to see the estimates of Iraqi dead himself, and was refused. But he suggested an estimate from Iraq Body Count, a British anti-war group that has compiled a death toll based on media reports, appeared credible. The group estimated that from 26,690 to 30,051 Iraqi civilians were killed, or roughly 1,000 per month in the 30 months since the war began. “I guess it is certainly possible given some of the spectacular events, but hard to say,” Boylan said via e-mail. Some outside experts call IRAQIS • 8 ( Make Textbooks Affordable National Day of Action Student Government will be holding a press conference and rally today on Greene St. at 11:45am to address the concern of outrageous textbook prices. Students will have the opportunity to sign a resolution that will be sent to the American Association of Publishers calling on them to make oranges to their selling practices. Free Pizza will be provided for any students who attend the event. V J V mimMiMrnMm W / Cocky is up for Mascot of the Year and he needs your help! To vote, go to www.capitalonebovd.com. Be sure to check out the standings first and vote against all the mascots who are ahead of us! __i_ \