“By the time of the U.S. handover of sovereignty on June 28, 2004, the fighting in Iraq had taken the lives of more than 850 Americans–more than 630 of them lost to hostile fire–and more than 59 British troops, and the toll kept rising. Unknown thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians were killed. The effort cost tens of billions of dollars, not counting the ultimate costs of reconstruction.”
– Todd S. Purdum and The New York Times Staff, A Time of Our Choosing, Page 6