Y are we there 2K

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. military death toll in Iraq reached 2,000, President George W. Bush said on Tuesday the war will require more time and sacrifice, and rejected calls for a U.S. pullout.

"Each loss of life is heartbreaking, and the best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission and lay the foundation of peace by spreading freedom," Bush said, his voice breaking with emotion as he spoke at a luncheon of military wives at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington.

His remarks came shortly before the Pentagon announced that Staff Sgt. George Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas on Saturday of injuries sustained October 17 in Samarra, Iraq, when a bomb planted by insurgents detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

This pushed the death toll in a war that began in March 2003 to 2,000. More than 15,000 U.S. troops have also been wounded in combat.

"This war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve," Bush said amid declining public support for the war. "The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced."

The U.S. Senate paused for a moment of silence after news that the death toll had reached 2,000.

But Army Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the 2000th death was "not a milestone."

"It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives. In some cases, this could also be the creating of news where none really exists," Boylan said.

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