Following a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 12, 2005, President Bush took a question from former libel lawyer Didi Goldmark. ” ‘Since the inception of the Iraqi war, I’d like to know the approximate total of Iraqis who have been killed,’ Goldmark said. It was a question that the White House and the Pentagon had consistently refused to address. But Bush gave a direct answer. ‘I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis,’ he said. ‘We’ve lost about 2,140 of our own troops in Iraq.’ ”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 432