When the 100th U.S. soldier died in combat since President Bush declared victory in Iraq nearly six months ago, the grim statistic laid bare how deadly Iraq has become even after the war. It also marked the biggest U.S. combat loss in a peacekeeping operation since an ill-fated intervention in the Lebanon conflict 20 years ago. That involvement ended in 1983 after an explosive-laden truck rammed into a U.S. Marines Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 servicemen. Somalia, Kosovo, Panama, Granada, Afghanistan and the first Gulf war, in which 147 Americans died, have not taken the overall toll on American lives that the present Iraq conflict has exacted. Full Story