On the 10th Annivesary of the US Invasion of Iraq, Capital Region bureau Chief Dave Lucas spoke with two Iraq war veterans who are now political leaders.
105th District Assemblyman Kieran Lalor was with one of the first Marine Corps units in Iraq, based out of Albany. He explains his batallion had been activated the year after 9 eleven, but stayed stateside until being discharged from active duty in 2002, only to be mobilized again in March 2003.
With an army career spanning 24 years, Chris Gibson, who represents New York 19th District in the United States Congress, served 4 combat tours to Iraq.
In addition the fallen U.S. service members. 134,000 Iraqi civilians died during the years of conflict. Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies issued a report last week, calculated the cost of the Iraq war at almost 4 Trillion dollars.