Lynn C. Woolsey: “his name is Staff Sergeant George T. Alexander of Clanton, Alabama. He died on Saturday, 5 days after a bomb exploded…”

“his name is Staff Sergeant George T. Alexander of Clanton, Alabama. He died on Saturday, 5 days after a bomb exploded near his vehicle about 60 miles north of Baghdad. He was the 2,000th brave American to give his life in the Iraq war. My deepest sympathies go out to his family, who I hope finds some comfort in the knowledge that Sergeant George Alexander is remembered by all of us as a true national hero. We mourn the loss of Staff Sergeant Alexander just as we continue to mourn all 1,999 who came before him. In my recent visit to Iraq, nothing made a greater impression on me than the intelligence, decency, and loyalty I saw in our soldiers. They really are the best our country has to offer. It pains me to think that any one of them could become casualty number 2,001; 2,002; 2,050; or 2,060. And it pains me that we clearly do not have civilian leaders worthy of our troops. It pains me that these soldiers have been betrayed by their superiors who sent them to Iraq on false pretenses, on a poorly defined mission without all of the tools they needed and without a plan to bring them home. 2,000 deaths is 2,000 too many for this mission, a mission which was immorally conceived and has been incompetently managed. The devastating truth is that Americans are not safer because of this war. We are not defeating the insurgency; we are inspiring it. That is not the fault of the men and women wearing the uniform; it is just the nature of this conflict.…”