From Merriam-Webster:
sacrifice
1 : to offer as a sacrifice
2 : to suffer loss of, give up, renounce, injure, or destroy especially for an ideal, belief, or end
3 : to sell at a loss
waste
1 : to lay waste; especially : to damage or destroy gradually and progressively
2 : to cause to shrink in physical bulk or strength : EMACIATE, ENFEEBLE
3 : to wear away or diminish gradually : CONSUME
4 a : to spend or use carelessly : SQUANDER b : to allow to be used inefficiently or become dissipated
5 : KILL; also : to injure severely
Even though McCain has officially regretted it by now, and Obama, while backing McCain's dedication to the troops, also officially regretted his own statement, it's clear that everyone has to actively try not to say "wasted" when talking about what Bush has done to our people in Iraq.
Compare the two words. We have no "ideals" here, unless the neocon fairytale of a magically democratic Middle East after we kill the big, bad wolf were to count as one. There is an end of some kind -- that same fairytale, as well as the additional end of "Bush trying to stall long enough to not have to admit failure on his own watch." In contrast, Bush and his coterie have clearly lain waste to our military. They have caused it to shrink in both physical bulk -- witness the continuing recruiting failures -- and in strength. They have gradually consumed our military, killing off its men and women, breaking its supplies, and grinding down those who yet live. And certainly, blatantly, they have squandered our people, carelessly throwing them into harm's way, choosing not only to go to war, but to do it in the worst, least-organized way possible.
There is a taboo against saying that our soldiers' lives are ever "wasted," as if to admit that would be to dishonor their personal sacrifice -- their choice to serve. This is exactly backwards. By refusing to admit that lives are wasted when we know that's what's happening, we let more lives continue to be thrown away for no reason at all.
It discourages me that both Senator McCain and Senator Obama are so easily bullied as to perpetuate the fiction that good people's lives are not being wasted in Iraq.