[roses of sharon]

My favorite too.

This whole idea of a group to "study" group is sick anyway, as if the military does not study this everyday, every minute, every second.

And to do this in public? Give quarter to the enemy? What are they thinking?

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Maybe they are just assuming that our nation is so large and our enemies so unable to harm us that they feel free to act in ways that must embolden our enemies greatly. That is a common hubris, and those populating this particular panel have been amongst the powerful most of their adult years -- and so hubris might well be a fault.

They must have known how the media and the left would magnify it...for their hatred of Bush over 2000 will burn white-hot forever. And yet those on the panel who should have stood on some ground, any ground at all, that would preserve America's right to defend herself by aggressive forward action bailed out as completely as those who don't believe in the use of force as policy.

Some still think that their internal political "enemies" are more important to defeat than their external enemies - the hubris of a great power that thinks itself unassailable. No one pays attention to the "Barbarians" outside the provinces, instead concentrating on taking the best possible political position for tomorrow's New York Times.

The left doesn't believe in the use of force (or even the maintenance of a robust defense) and now the rest have joined them by not believing - or not thinking it important enough - that our enemies can do great harm to us. No one's left watching the gates. Indeed, what are they thinking?