On March 20, 2003 the first US bombs were dropped in Iraq. Two years after the invasion, a toppled Saddam has been captured and the first Iraqi elections held. However, the growing number of casualties and fiscal toll of war weighs heavy on the minds of those who question the final cost of US intervention internationally and on our domestic economy.

• 1,500 US soldiers have died in Iraq; estimated Iraqi deaths range from 16,000 to 18,000.
  
  
• War cost to US taxpayers to date: $146.6 billion, excluding a $82 billion dollar additional request made for Iraq and Afghanistan by the President in February.

For Iraq, this point in history offers unique opportunity and many challenges. Women, who once wore western clothes and worked out of the home in Saddam's secular Iraq, now face religious backlash by newly elected groups, even as they work for inclusion in the new Iraqi governance. Reconstruction has created new schools and higher education opportunities, yet many children are now breadwinners after the loss of parents and relatives to war. Malnutrition and disease take an unseen toll on the lives of these future Iraqi leaders.

Many specific reconstruction projects cannot be reported on for fear of making targets out of newly rebuilt sewer and water treatment plants, schools and facilities. How is the reconstruction effort going? What is life like for all Iraqis: Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds?

• Over 2,000 schools have been rebuilt nationwide in Iraq, 3 million children under 5 vaccinated and 1.3 million screened for malnutrition.
  
  
• 31 percent of Iraq's newly elected 275 parliamentarians are women yet in some places women cannot leave their homes for fear of violence against them.

The strain of extended occupation on our military personnel is beginning to show, as evidenced by the recent accidental shooting of an Italian secret service agent assigned to protect journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Returning from Iraq, US soldiers are being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in record numbers. Advances in battlefield medicine mean more soldiers are surviving injuries that would have once proved fatal: head and eye injuries that often result in paralysis, blindness or other disabilities. What is life like for homecoming soldiers returning from war?

How many people were tortured or killed under Saddam? Has torture stopped in the new Iraq? How many, military and civilian, have died in Iraq? How many cities, towns and homes have been destroyed? What is the status of women in Iraq? How do Iraqis feel about the elections? How many US troops are stationed in Iraq and what other countries have military there? Who are the insurgents? What is our exit strategy? How much money has been spent in Iraq and what could it have been used for? What kind of democracy can we expect to see in Iraq? What model would be the most successful? What is the Bush Administration looking for? How does the democracy that Iraqi's want differ from American style democracy? What other forms of democracy could Iraq have? What are the next steps for the Iraqi government and constitution? How is the training of the Iraqi military and police force going?

Talking Points