It is amazing how the more time that passes, the more things are the same.
I'm surprised that the number isn't higher. OIF and OEF have been going on longer than WWII, and this may just be the warm up.
As far as Iraq goes, I've spent a summer or two there, and wouldn't lose any sleep about not going back. The military has done a magnificent job smashing the insurgents, but pretty much all of our other efforts were ineffective and poorly thought out. At this point, we (the military) are buying time for them (the contractors, diplomats, and Iraqis) to get their act together with our own asses, and it's getting old. We've dumped enough money into that joint to pave the roads with gold bricks, and we still can't even keep the lights on. (Not that I'm bitter, or anything)
Anyway, if the guys over there are frustrated, it's because they understand that no matter how well they do their job, ultimately, winning in Iraq isn't about how many muj you take out. Iraq can still have a good future, but we need to rethink how we can help it get there. We can sustain what we're doing indefinitely, but Iraqi society can't.
(On the plus side, our military had advanced by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and learned a lot. Woe to any other nation that crosses swords with us, and don't believe for a minute that the Army is broken. People are frustrated, but that's a far cry from being beaten.)