As the Iraq war entered its fifth year this week, the costs of the conflict – now one of the longest for this country – continue to mount, and the public’s disenchantment with it has never been greater.

The cost was no more apparent than in southern Maine last week, where the family and friends of Angel Rosa, a 21-year-old Marine from South Portland, were mourning his death.

Rosa, a former soccer player at South Portland High School, joined the more than 3,200 U.S. troops who have given their lives to the war when he was killed March 13 in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. The captain of his high school team, Rosa was remembered this week as a leader on and off the soccer field, who transcended cliques at school. He left behind a wife, sister and parents.

Military casualties have not been the only cost of this war. More than 24,000 U.S. troops have been wounded since the war began. Of those, one in five will live with a permanent disability. Numbers of Iraqi civilian casualties are difficult to come by, although some international humanitarian groups have estimated somewhere between 60,000 and 65,000.

The financial cost of this war is also high. It has so far cost taxpayers an estimated $500 billion. The good will it has cost this country internationally is impossible to calculate, although it was in evidence on the president’s recent tour of South America, which brought the world pictures of protestors burning flags and effigies at every stop.

The debate in Washington is now over whether to set a deadline for pulling troops out of Iraq, with some Democrats in Congress arguing that’s it’s time for Iraqi authorities to take over and the administration arguing that time has not yet come.

While we don’t pretend to know what would happen if we were to pull troops out of the country in six months or a year or how long it might take to stabilize a country with three ethnic factions and a history of hatred, we owe it the memory of fallen soldiers like Angel Rosa to have the patience do everything we can to complete the mission for which they have given their lives.

We also owe it to them to remember their sacrifices and the hubris with which those who committed us to this war sold it – exaggerating the threat and de-emphasizing the price we would pay as a country. The tone the president took in a speech Monday on the fourth anniversary of the war was far different from the triumphal tone he took on the deck of an aircraft carrier May 1, 2003, under a “mission accomplished” banner.

As a country, we can never forget the cost of this war – or any war. When we are faced again with the decision to commit troops to battle, we need to remember the troops and civilians who will lose their lives and their families who will be left to cope with their loss. We need to remember Angel Rosa.

Brendan Moran, editor

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