EDITORIAL: Box score - 2,558

Those are all the days leading up to Friday's seventh anniversary of the bombing of Baghdad from the beginning of the U.S. campaign to topple Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein. To date, the Department of Defense says 4,375 military personnel were killed in hostile action and another 31,732 were injured.

Another number making news this month is 6,000 - the number of candidates running for the Council of Representatives, the Iraqi national legislature.