The violence doesn't stop in recognition of any grim milestone reached.

BAGHDAD — As many as 20 mortar shells were fired Sunday at the heavily fortified Green Zone, one of the fiercest and most sustained attacks on the area in the last year....

No Americans were killed in the shelling on Sunday, officials said, but mortar shells that fell short of their target killed 13 Iraqis in neighborhoods east of the Green Zone. The first attack, about 6 a.m., sent thunderous booms echoing across the city, shaking buildings and rattling windows.

And while the focus is on those 4,000 Americans, Brandon Friedman has an even more sobering assessment.

American forces have just experienced the most violent two-week period in Iraq since September 2007. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this fact will be lost in the media coverage over the number 4,000 during the next several days.  Of the two significant numbers this week--4,000 killed during war and 25 in the last two weeks--the latter figure is far more significant with regard to the current situation on the ground.

We hear talk of attacks against Americans "ebbing," ceasefires holding, and of the situation in Iraq being "not that fragile," but this is all a bunch of happy-talk nonsense.  Between March 10 and March 23, 25 American soldiers were killed in Iraq.  The last two-week period in which U.S. forces sustained similar losses was between September 14 and September 27, when 26 were killed--a period that capped off the bloodiest summer of the war.

A bad harbinger looking forward to the next calendar milestone.

But there is hope, not while we have this President and not while we have this Congress. But if enough of the 26 and counting Democratic challengers who have signed onto the Responsible Plan to End the War win in November, and if their courage in staking the election on this issue infects our current crop of Representatives and Senators, maybe we won't be making these grim calculations after 2009.

Among those 26 endorsing candidates are Blue Majority stars Darcy Burner, Leslie Byrne, Donna Edwards, and Eric Massa.

As we approach the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War, there is a movement building to end the war. The Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq is a growing coalition of congressional candidates and military leaders who are pushing a swift and responsible withdrawal plan. The coalition includes candidates like Darcy Burner WA-8 and Donna Edwards MD-4, Major General Paul Eaton who was the former Security Transition Commanding General in Iraq and Dr. Lawrence Korb who is the former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration. The coalition to end the war just got gained another endorser, Oregon Senate candidate and current House Speaker Jeff Merkley.