This past weekend, the number of U.S. casualties in Iraq climbed to 700. This is the highest number of Americans to die in combat operations since Vietnam. Earlier last week, the Pentagon announced that 20,000 troops scheduled to come back home would instead be given three-month extensions in Iraq. So much for an "all volunteer" force.

The current situation should give everyone reason to pause and evaluate the logic of occupation and the rationality of what this administration is doing in Iraq. President Bush, in his usual macho swagger, talks about "staying the course." To me, this makes as much sense as the captain of the Titanic saying he was going to stay the course after being told of the impending disaster. Have people forgotten the fact that the young American soldiers dying every day in Iraq were sent there on the basis of distortions and lies?

Whatever happened to those weapons of mass destruction? Oh, that's right -- there actually weren't any. Oops.

Incredibly, Bush has said that even if he had known there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he still would have gone in. On what basis, George? As the death toll of American soldiers in Iraq continues to climb higher and higher, I hope people at least take the time to ask why.

I, for one, don't know.