In dollars, the cost is nearing $200 billion; in bodies, the count is inching toward 2,000. At least 1,940 United States troops have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Despite the exorbitant price on each of the dead, which comes out to about $100 million a fatality, the cost apparently isn’t great enough to lure more young people to the recruiting stations.

Army Secretary Francis Harvey, speaking at a recent news conference, said the number of recruits added during fiscal year 2005, which ended Sept. 30, was about 73,250 — 8 percent short of the Army’s 80,000 goal.

You can’t blame young people for not signing up, however. Most people now realize the war was launched illegally and dishonestly. But back in 2003, most people mistakenly thought that Congress had OK’d the invasion.

John Bonifaz, a constitutional lawyer and the author of the book "Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush," said recently that "a big lie being told about this war is that Congress voted for this war. Congress never voted for this war.

"Congress gave an unlawful blank check [on Oct. 10, 2002] to the president to decide whether or not to wage war against Iraq," he continued. "The war powers clause of the Constitution makes clear that Congress, and only Congress, has the power to wage a war against another nation."

Yet, consider that along with the lies about imminent threats and weapons of mass destruction, and you can understand why so many Americans joined the president and his cohorts in their war dance two and a half years ago.

Right after the invasion, polls showed 70 percent of Americans supported the war. It’s easier to back a military action when your country is clobbering the enemy. But now, more than 29 months after the president declared victory, the war is far from over.

And popular support for it is dwindling fast. The most recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll showed only 37 percent of Americans approve of Bush’s handling of Iraq, with 62 percent disapproving.

The trend is just as I predicted it would be when I insisted that eventually people would find out they were duped and realize that we really didn’t have any idea how to get out of Iraq.

In June 2003 I wrote that "you don’t hear much from the alleged 70 percent of Americans who supported the invasion. Shouldn’t they be questioning their allegiance to a war based on lies and ignorance? They were untruthfully told Iraq was an imminent threat to their security and that a pre-emptive invasion was necessary to protect the United States."

It took a while, but they did start questioning — and so are some of the soldiers who served in Iraq, six of whom have already decided to run for Congress.

One, then-Capt. Patrick Murphy, this week told of his answer to a private who while in Iraq asked why U.S. troops were there. Murphy said he told him it didn’t matter; that he should just do his job.

"That wasn’t the time to question our government," Murphy recalled.

Yes, it was. But better late than not at all.

An increasing number of people was tired of hearing about troops dying for a mission that’s become all too unclear. They want a schedule for withdrawing from the quagmire before it gets any deeper.

But our vice president says a premature withdrawal of troops would leave Iraq in chaos. And the conditions there now are what?

Tina Garnanez, who was in the Army for five years and was a medic in Iraq from July to December 2004, said in Washington recently that "a lot of us would ask, `What are we doing in Iraq?’ Eventually, my higher-ups would say it’s for oil — to make rich men richer. But no one in the Army can say things like that publicly for fear of punishment."

So, the cat’s out of the bag, but how can we get the troops home before more of them are killed or maimed? Is there any chance Congress might usurp its constitutional role and end the war right away?

Not likely.

We could have more demonstrations such as the one in Washington two weeks ago attended by 100,000 or more.

But we may not have to wait for Congress or anti-war demonstrations to have an impact. The misguided mission itself is what has turned the tide of popular opinion, and it’s likely the debacle in Iraq will keep that opposition swelling.

Let’s hope they get the message sooner rather than later.

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Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at (607) 432-1000, ext. 217, or cary@thedailystar.com.