As we acknowledge the two-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the beginning of the Iraq war, it is worth assessing the terrible cost of this war – a war that should never have happened. We owe it to the thousands who have suffered from the war and the occupation to gauge the cost of this unjustifiable aggression. There are the tragic human costs, the terrible financial costs, the permanent environmental costs and the immeasurable costs to our democracy.

But how should we count up the human cost? Should we count the lives of 1,500 U.S. soldiers lost so far? Should we count the 1,500 mothers and 1,500 fathers whose lives will never be the same after the loss of their children? Should we count the orphans, who will never see their parents? What about the 11,000 wounded? How do we count the loss to those who will never walk again or see again or breathe on their own again? And should we count the other 15,000 troops with so-called “non-battle” injuries and diseases that have been evacuated from Iraq even though they are left off the Pentagon’s casualty list?

Do we count the dead Iraqi civilians at all? Our generals have said that they do not do such body counts. With participation of researchers from Johns Hopkins and Columbia Universities, the medical journal Lancet, in one of the first independent attempts to estimate the loss of civilian life from the Iraq war, estimated that 100,000 Iraqis died in the first 18 months as a result of the U.S. invasion. What about the Iraqi children who lived through having their arms and legs blown off by the bombs we pay for with our taxes?

How do we measure the economic cost? Do we count the $231 billion the U.S. Congress has committed so far? Or should we here in Maine just count the $461 million our state has contributed? Do we count the fact that that amount could make up much of the current Maine budget deficit? Should we add in the six-month delay for Maine veterans to get an appointment at the Togus VA Medical Center due to insufficient funding? Do we add in the billions that corporate contractors have gained from the war?

How do we estimate environmental costs? How do we count up the damage that lingers and causes the slow, invisible suffering that does not make the evening news? How do we count the damage that will unfold in years to come as children come across unexploded cluster bombs? The World Health Organization cites studies that show between a three- and ten-fold increase in leukemia and other cancers in areas where U.S. depleted uranium munitions were used in the first Gulf War.

We know that 200,000 veterans suffer from Gulf War Syndrome, with its debilitating illnesses and increased rates of birth defects. Do we count the future suffering of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis being exposed to depleted uranium and other battlefield toxins in Iraq right now? How can we ever, in the lifetimes of seven times seven generations of our descendents, count the ecological damage to all species from the spreading of radioactive uranium dust in perhaps the richest archaeological and

historical area in the world, the cradle of civilization and the Eden of the Bible?

And how will we ever recover from the cost to our democracy? The Bush administration embarked on a war of choice in violation of international law and in defiance of our allies. They lied to us about weapons of mass destruction, exploiting the fear and pain of the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They falsely suggested a connection of

al-Qaida to Saddam Hussein so that half our citizenry mistakenly believes the Iraq war is justified as a response to those attacks.

How can our democracy survive when much of the media serves as an unquestioning mouthpiece for the Administration? Journalists in a democratic society are supposed to challenge those in power. How can our democracy and commitment to our founding principles recover from the horror of torture and prisoner abuse inflicted by U.S. soldiers acting on behalf of a leadership that has promulgated a policy that allows this to happen?

The Iraq war has never been justified and continues to be a disastrous policy. We must demand an end to it! We call on our congressional delegation, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Reps. Michael Michaud and Tom Allen, to tell the Bush administration that the costs are too high and we will not pay. The best way to support our troops is to bring them home now. We can accomplish U.S. withdrawal by empowering international organizations to convene an emergency meeting of Iraq’s leadership, Iraq’s neighbors, the United Nations and the Arab League, groups with cultural and diplomatic credibility, to create an international peacekeeping force in Iraq to work for a nonviolent solution to the Iraq crisis.

This weekend, across the United States, people are calling for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq. In Bangor, the Peace & Justice Center invites you to join a Chain of Concern at Cascade Park, 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 19, calling on our government to support our troops by bringing them home; to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq; and to allocate money for jobs, education, and health care, not for war. Please join us.

Mary Dolan, of Old Town, and Scott Ruffner, of Bangor, are members of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine.