Thomas Daschle: “Yesterday was a national day of mourning in Italy. Tens of thousands of people lined a procession route and gathered at…”

“Yesterday was a national day of mourning in Italy. Tens of thousands of people lined a procession route and gathered at a basilica in Rome to pay their final respects to 19 Italian soldiers killed last week in a truck bombing in Nasiriyah, Iraq. The soldiers' deaths mark Italy's worst military loss since World War II. The American people share Italy's sorrow over their enormous loss. There is also a profound sense of sorrow today in South Dakota. Two of the 17 American soldiers killed last Saturday, when those 2 Army Black Hawk helicopters collided in the sky over the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, were from our State. South Dakota lost as many soldiers in that instant as we had lost in the entire Iraq war so far. Today, we mourn our lost sons: Army CWO Scott Saboe; and Army PFC Sheldon Hawk Eagle. We also mourn the 15 soldiers lost with them, the 405 other U.S. servicemembers who have given their lives, so far, in this war, and all of the sons and daughters of our allies who have been lost in this war.”