4,000

It was inevitable that we'd arrive at this point as a road side bomb kills another four soldiers in Baghdad. A quagmire and a ruling caste who still believe they were right to be wrong about Iraq. But the cost is far higher than the 4,000 officially killed.

The wounded figure since March 19, 2003, is now well above 29,000. It is far, far higher than the number killed, and often has a more lasting impact on those who sacrifice as a human tragedy and in terms of costs. If one counts the number of men and women whose lives have been virtually destroyed by critical combat wounds and adds that total to the number killed, we reached 4,000 long ago. Far too much media coverage focuses only on "killed." There needs to be balance in counting all of the wounded, and far more attention paid to the number of critical physical and psychological wounds and disability cases. In many ways, news reporting on the "stats" of the fighting now covers only half the sacrifice of those who serve in uniform.

Here's the story of one young man, now "a gimp."