I think that the FReeper who posted this thread has made it perfectly clear that he was comparing past wars to Operation Iraqi Freedom when he used the term, "cake walk". I understood that clearly after reading beyond the title.
You seem to want to latch onto the title of the thread and use just those words to argue with, while refusing to acknowledge the content of the article which clearly puts the title into perspective. Of course, that is your right to do so.
However, even our son, who marched into Iraq on the very first day of this war, would understand and agree with what Dominic Harr's point is. We've had many conversations with our son about Operation Iraqi Freedom compared to past wars and dare I say we may have even used that old-fashioned phrase, "cake-walk" when using it for comparison purposes. Operation Iraqi Freedom was not a literal "cake-walk", no war is, but it sure was a "cake-walk" when compared to some other wars. I just don't see that this is so difficult to comprehend.
God bless our troops, past and present, for their service and their sacrifice!
"You seem to want to latch onto the title..."
Would you be irritated if you purchased a book that said, on it's cover "How to Win Friends and Influence People", but when you got home and read it, it was a book on how to efficiently undermine people in the workplace? Even if it was factually true?
Would you say there are people who MIGHT see that title and enter to read the thread and say to themselves "What am I wasting my time in here for? This is an aspect of an issue that has been discussed dozens of times, and this person thinks they are being profound with a new groundbreaking viewpoint on something? And they get people to take a look with a misleading, dishonorable and inconsiderate title?
The use of the phrase is not insignificant. Words have meaning. If I had started a thread:
"US Military Deaths in Iraq are Insignificant"
"Over the last three and a half years, thousands of American military personnel have died in the fighting in Iraq. To put this into perspective, we suffered 6,000 Marine in thirty days in WWII. While no deaths are good, these casualites are small and relatively insignificant in comparison..."
I could hardly be insulted if someone disagreed with the title of the thread, even if the main point makes sense, and I certainly wouldn't denigrate someone who did disagree with me, as this person did.
ESPECIALLY if I childishly titled it DELIBERATELY (as he says he did, by his own admission) to bump the volume on a thread and incite controversy for its own sake.
I SPECIFICALLY told him (in the FIRST post I made) that I understood the point he was making and agreed with it. And I did it in a sympathetic and civil way. His response was to ridicule my viewpoint as political correctness.