The official war in Iraq is over, leaving America with a hefty bill - and we're not just paying with money, but with lives.

The Senate gave its blessing Monday to the $87.5 billion package for reconstructing Iraq and Afghanistan.

The package, requested by President Bush in a national speech Sept. 7, will soon be signed, sealed and delivered to help rebuild Iraq's economy and government.

While $87.5 billion is a large sum to pay for what was a questionable war to begin with, the real tragedy is that American soldiers still are losing their lives every day troops remain in Iraq.

As of Monday, a total of 376 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of Iraq military operations. But 238 of those deaths occurred since May 1, when Bush officially declared the end to major combat operations.

The president is hesitant to acknowledge the attacks, even in the face of the fact that more service members have died since the end of the war than during it.

Sunday marked the bloodiest attack on American service members since combat ended - 16 soldiers died when an Army transport helicopter was shot down.

But Bush has barely mentioned the incident and has kept his remarks about Iraq broad.

For a man who mentioned Iraq in almost every public address since March, he hasn't uttered more than a few words on the subject in his past few speeches.

The media seem to be in on this avoidance of reality as well - despite the ever-rising number of deaths, the public has yet to see any caskets draped in flags returning to home soil.

The media exist to show the reality and keep a record of events such as these. Americans need to see the faces and hear the death tolls so that we all have a clearer picture of exactly how dearly we are paying overseas.

America's war left Iraq in shambles. The Iraqi government, economy and people need aid because they are not at the point where they can help themselves.

America owes them this aid - the war was our mistake in the first place, and the least we can do is help them rebuild.

But this debt comes at a deadly cost for America. Our economy is suffering as well, and during these times of nationwide budget crunching, the money to restore Iraq will come from the public's pockets through taxes.

It is ridiculous to spend so much money on aid to fix the chaos caused just because our government was nervous about weapons of mass destruction. Congress was right not to foot the $87.5 billion in the form of loans because we do owe the Iraqi people this money.

The media should portray the consequences of American involvement in Iraq accurately without sparing the details. If it is not documented, everyone from the government to the public can keep pretending the conflict doesn't exist.

America is paying more than a pretty penny for its mistakes. But the only way to crawl out of this debt with any dignity is to keep paying and start remembering so such mistakes never have the chance to be repeated.