They died but, hey, we gained a strategic relationship

From military dot com, a piece about an Iraq War study done at Brown University:

Study: Iraq War Cost 190K Lives, $2.2 Trillion

 Remember the Team Bush estimate of war costs was $50-60 billion?

The Costs of War report, 

released ahead of the 10th anniversary
of the war, included "substantial" costs
to care for wounded veterans.

This piece quotes State Dept response to this report: "both countries made enormous sacrifices"... when 70% of the casualties were Iraqi civilians! (This is !!not!! to dismiss the sacrifice made by US troops sent over there, and their families ... who had no choice but to follow orders.) State Dept also points out that we have forged a "strategically important" relationship with Iraq ... I wonder what the legions of dead folks and their famlies might say about the importance of a US/Iraq strategic relationship when weighed against the cost of so many lives and so much destruction.