[Alberta's Child]

Compare D-Day, June 6, 1944: KIA about 9,000. . . . Battle of the Bulge (December 16,1944, to January 25,1945) 81,000 American casualties (including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed) and 1,400 British casualties with 200 killed.

Comparing 1944-45 to today is rather silly, since this country is not on the same war footing today that we were on back then.

Did Congress and FDR enact a $500+ billion Medicare prescription drug benefit in, say, October of 1944?

[patriciaruth]

My point was that wars seen in historical focus can show what was going on and when the need for grit and steadfastness was necessary, and the reward of the final outcome.

As we fight today, we can't see in hindsight what our result will be and where getting weak-kneed would have undermined the best result.

I'm betting that this month of terrible losses will be seen as part of a larger whole with a desired outcome in the end that leads to a better world for both us and the Iraqis. Soldiers will remember this time as WWII soldiers remembered the Battle of the Bulge.

And what we are doing domestically about Medicare doesn't really have any bearing on the historical impact of this current war.