Oh, here are a couple of items.
1/ It was only last September that the official count of US military deaths in Iraq exceeded 1000. That was roughly 18 months after Bush launched this war. Now, less than five months later, it has crossed the 1500 milestone: http://icasualties.org/oif/ (The math isn't complex. The rate is INCREASING.)
(1293 of these deaths took place since July 2, 2003, when Bush urged insurgents to "Bring it on!" As usual, Bush got his way.)
[This does not include deaths of US "security contractors". (Let's be honest: As paid armed civilian combatants in a war zone working for a military force, they are "mercenaries". By the Pentagon's definitions, you might even call them "illegal enemy combatants" or "terrorists" -- not covered by the Geneva Conventions, of course.) These numbers are murky. But at least 25 US mercenaries have been killed in Iraq (probably more -- definitions get tough here): http://icasualties.org/oif/Civ.aspx (at least 200 foreign civilian deaths overall in Iraq)]
2/ One BIG problem with one-party rule: No accountability. With Republicans controlling the administration and both houses of Congress (and, increasingly, the courts), a lot of really horrible (and corrupt) stuff is getting swept under the rug. For example, the Republican leadership in Congress is refusing to investigate the administration practice of "extraordinary rendition" -- kidnapping people and sending them to other countries to be tortured: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/politics/02intel.html.
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