Iraq freedom worth cost, minister says as US toll nears 4000
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Efforts to defeat terrorism in Iraq have been worth the high cost in US and Iraqi blood and treasure, the country's top security official said Sunday, as American military deaths there neared 4,000.
"This war is well worth fighting," Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie told CNN television.
"This is global terrorism hitting everywhere and they have chosen Iraq to be a battlefield. And we have to take them on."
"If we don't prevail, if we don't succeed in this war, then we are doomed forever," he added, offering his sympathy to the United States for "the treasure, with the money, with the blood you have invested."
The US military announced Saturday the deaths of four soldiers, including three who were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad that also left two Iraqis dead.
The latest deaths brought US military losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,996, according to independent website icasualties.org.
Al-Rubaie noted however that Iraqis have paid an even higher price for their freedom.
"The Iraqis have invested three times the blood than the Americans in the way of casualties, in the way of spending their treasure and money," al-Rubaie said.
"So we are not talking about Americans fighting this on their own. We are with them and we are taking the lead."
