Because Bob Herbert’s New York Times columns are not generally flashy or witty or written on trendy topics, he’s usually overshadowed by colleagues like Maureen Dowd or Thomas Friedman. What Herbert’s columns do have, though, are empathy and a straightforward earnestness. Today he writes on the growing death toll in Iraq:

The president is on vacation. He’s down at the ranch riding his bicycle and clearing brush. The death toll for Americans has streaked past the 1,800 mark. The Iraqi dead are counted by the tens of thousands. But if Mr. Bush has experienced any regret about the carnage he set in motion when he launched the war, he’s not showing it. …

The administration is not willing to commit to an all-out effort to defeat the insurgents in Iraq, and is equally unwilling to reverse course and bring the troops home. …

Ask a thousand different suits in Washington why we’re in Iraq and you’ll get a thousand different answers. Ask how we plan to win the war, and you’ll get a blank stare. …

When asked on Tuesday about a possible exit strategy for American troops, Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters it depended on many “variables,” including:

“What are the Iranians doing? Are they going to be helpful or unhelpful? And if they’re increasingly unhelpful, then obviously the conditions on the ground are less advantageous. Same thing with the Syrians.”

Got that? …

George W. Bush has no strategy, no real plan, for winning the war in Iraq. So we’re stuck in a murderous quagmire without even the suggestion of an end in sight.

As of today, 1,844 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq; 13,877 U.S. soldiers have been wounded; and somewhere around 25,000 civilians have been killed.

Approximately 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. On the day when the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq meets or exceeds that number – a day that, at current rates, will probably come in late 2006 – the American people will cross a psychological barrier. I doubt anything will substantively change on that day, but it will put the lie to any notion – whatever other valid reasons there might have been – that 9/11 required us to go to Iraq.