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Wait, please! Before we change subjects, I'm a reasonable poster, I think; I'm asking a reasonable question, and I'm not at all wedded to the numbers I've put out there. The question is, what has the toll been on our enemies in the entire global WOT? I've never heard anyone pose this question in any measurable sense. I think it's a good question. I'm open to anyone challenging my numbers. But please don't dismiss them as crazy or uninteresting.

History is full of examples where men are sent in waves to their deaths (Stalin, Iran-Iraq in the 1980s, ...) so I have no illusions about the terror masters in the ME. But to say that there is no toll or that this can go on indefinitely is simply not true.

There is nothing in Baghdad that 35 megatons won't cure. We have chosen a more 'humane' route in which we trade more of our precious lives for Iraqis. We have also chosen where the battlefield is going to be. We do not have an army, in the larger sense, capable of fighting in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, but, one superbly crafted for the open spaces of Iraq. Granted, it has become an urban battle field where fire and
maneuver are limited. The notion, that, attacking in Afghanistan, or worse, not doing anything, would not have created more terrorists is ludicrous. The success of 9/11 had them streaming in. The slime stream media representation that a few American and dozens of Iraqi civilians killed a day without a single mention of enemy causalities is poisoning the measure of success. The era of body count was ended by the media as being unreliable. Maybe, the Slimes could sponsor a DNA match, so that, two ears could equal two bodies. A major success, like, Zarqawi, is denigrated as overkill and loss of innocent life. Iraq is central to where the war on terror should be fought.

You have put numbers to what is called the flypaper strategy. That by fighting in Iraq we suck the terrorists out of other countries. Insofar as that may be true we are doing something for those countries that benefits them. In return they need to get their acts together and participate in the WOT. And they do.

Today there is a rumor that Saudia Arabia will mount massive aid to Sunnis in Anbar. This I've gotta see. Haven't seen any Saudi troop;s since I last watched Lawrence of Arabia. But the latte crowd will believe anything in their Park AVe penthouses.