BUSH HONORS CITIZEN-SOLDIERS BY SENDING MORE OF THEM TO DIE IN IRAQ

Well, it's clear now. The only way we're going to be able to exit from the Iraq War anytime soon is to impeach Bush.

President Bush, rebutting critics who want the United States to leave Iraq, pledged Wednesday that as long as he is president "we will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terrorism."

Bush was speaking to the Idaho National Guard, whose service he lauded, and their families.

Bush praised the unique role of Guard members, who serve both their states and their country. More than 243,000 National Guard members have been called up for the war on terror, including more than 1,700 from Idaho.

In a rare reference to the war's death toll, Bush noted that 491 Guard and Reserve members have lost their lives in the fight against terror.

"And now we'll honor their sacrifice by completing their mission," he said.

I doubt he took note of the following:

The elevated death rates among part-time soldiers are a significant shift from the past. During most wars in the last century, the full-time military took most of the casualties, and their troops were much more likely to die in battle than Guardsmen and reservists.

In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, for example, the Army Guard suffered no fatalities out of 382 U.S. deaths. A total of 94 Army National Guardsmen and no reservists were killed out of 58,209 U.S. deaths in Vietnam.

''It's a changed paradigm,'' says Richard Stark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ''We have completely crossed the line in terms of what it is to be a citizen-soldier.''