Toll hits 2,000: Bush laments troop deaths but vows to finish mission

WASHINGTON — President Bush marked the 2,000th death of an American soldier in Iraq with a call for national resolve on Tuesday, seeking to shore up flagging support for the conflict while warning of more deaths to come.

SIZE="2">Special Edition: Fallen — 2,000 deaths in Iraq

"Sacrifice is essential to winning war," Bush told some 500 military wives at an Air Force base in Washington, "and this war will require more sacrifice."

Hours later, the Pentagon announced that Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., of Killeen, Texas, died Saturday at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio of wounds he suffered last week when a car bomb exploded near his vehicle in the central Iraqi city of Samarra. Earlier in Baghdad, military officials announced the deaths of two Marines in fighting last week.

The three fatalities brought to 2,000 the number of U.S. troops that have died since Bush launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, a tally by the Associated Press found. Twelve Utah servicemen are included in that number.

The U.S. Senate paused for a minute of silence to honor the fallen troops. And Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, both R-Utah, said they are saddened by the loss of American lives but continue to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"I have said since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq that I agree with (Defense) Secretary Rumsfeld that this will be a long hard slog, but in the end it will be worth it to have a stable, free democratic country in the Middle East," Bennett said.

Added Hatch, "Every casualty should be mourned, from the first to the last. But it makes no sense to support our war efforts by an abstract figure of casualties. The rationale for going to war remains compelling, and we must continue until our goals are met."

Meanwhile, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last year, began what she said would be a four-day protest in front of the White House. She said war opponents would "die symbolically" to spotlight the continuing losses and appeal for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

In Utah, James Valarian of Utah Rally for Peace said the loss of American lives needs to stop. He has organized a memorial vigil to be held from 5:30-10:30 p.m. today outside the Bennett Federal Building on the corner of 100 South and State streets.