That is not what the statement said. When politicians are allowed to launch wars for ill-defined reasons, with vague exit strategies and ever-shifting criteria for success, you have a formula for tragedy. Every American life lost in Iraq is a waste of life. This does not dishonor or disparage the soldiers. He did not say the soldiers were a waste - he said that the death of the fallen soldiers was a waste of life. This means that he considers the lives of these soldiers to be extremely valuable and should not have been wasted on a war that should have never happened.