Harry Reid: “as of this morning, 2,262 American soldiers have died in Iraq and 17,000, 18,000 have been injured, wounded; over 16,000…”

“as of this morning, 2,262 American soldiers have died in Iraq and 17,000, 18,000 have been injured, wounded; over 16,000 have been wounded so seriously that they could not return to battle. Each of these deaths and every one of these individuals who have been wounded, many of whom have been maimed, is a national tragedy. Yesterday, I was speaking to one of my friends with whom I came to Washington in 1982. We keep in touch with each other. He now lives in Santa Rosa, CA. He said, ``Harry, you know, we just lost our sixth soldier in this little community.'' I have attended funerals of Nevada servicemen who have been killed. I want to make sure we do everything we can so that fewer of our loyal, patriotic men and women are not killed in Iraq. I want to make sure they have all the equipment--anything they need. As we speak, there are other tragedies in America, one of which deals with the legislation that is on the floor today. This year, 2006, 10,000 people will die from asbestos-related diseases. That is the case every year. These people did nothing wrong. They were simply exposed to a substance that corporate America knew would make them sick and cause them to die. But because of corporate America's willingness to exchange the lives of these men and women, they went ahead and did this.…”