[Pokey78]

Pinging Peggy's list.

[Porterville]

She always ask questions like this when she doubts her own resolve. Of course Bush ain't gonna quit, and neither are the Republicans.

[RaiderRose]

I heard a member of the military on
Rush Limbaugh today (didn't get the
guy's name) say that we can expect
70-to-90 percent casualties if we are
forced into urban warfare. "Casualties"
of course including wounded and dead.

I don't know if the general public
will stay behind this war if that happens.
I sure hope it doesn't happen, and I sure hope
that if it does, we do not make those
lives be lost for nothing by pulling out
(re: Somalia).

Anyone know if this 70-90 percent is
about the right number, or was this guy
way way off??

[CyberAnt]

Yesterday, we captured a hospital which had been taken over by the enemy. We used bullhorns and told the medical people to leave and take the patients with them.

Then ... we went in and took over the hospital. We captured almost 200 people and their equipment. They even had a tank on the hospital grounds.

After we cleared the hospital, the medical staff and patients were told to go back into the hospital.

We could have just bombed the living poop out of the whole place and wasted the lives of civilians.

But ... we did it the right way and I believe this attitude will cause the civilians to rise up and help us.

[Homeschoolmom]

Aahhhhhh.. I love Peggy.. She inspires me so...

[Celtjew Libertarian]

The other thing about 9/11 is that we saw 3,000 murdered, as they went about their civilian business. It makes it a little easier to accept deaths among people who choose to put their life on the line, knowing that it's in order to help prevent another 9/11 from happening.

I don't know if the U.S. would have had a stomach for this before 9/11.

[Illbay]

Peggy: Don't confuse the average American with the American media.

The media are "celebrities," after all. And we all know how much in common "celebrities" have with the rest of us.

[palmer]

The idea was that if you go in with overwhelming force, victory will beat the bodybags home.

It depends on your long term goals. If you expect to stay a while, then you have to consider how to win the hearts and minds of the population against a regime using them as hostages. If you don't win over the population, then it's quite possible to have more body bags in the long run.

[weegee]

Peggy Noonan: Will America crumple at the sight of its own blood?"

Interesting question seeing as how the left stopped airing footage of the WTC attack within a matter of days and all of the carnage footage/shots was censored in America. The reason given is that it would do TOO MUCH to provoke Americans to want revenge.

Since they would not show us any of those bodies (also with the "respect" due the dead people) then I certainly don't want Big Media showing me dead American soliders and dead/injured Iraqi civilians and children.

They play a propaganda game and don't seek to inform the public of anything that couldn't just be "said".

[fightu4it]

"The question on everyone's mind that nobody in the US can bear to discuss."

Earth to Peggy: Don't get your panties in a knot!

Only leftists like yourself continue to under estimate the will of the US militaty and the US people. Take your medication and when you wake up it will be a whole new day.

[CGTRWK]

To speak of possible high losses seems fear-mongering, alarmist, lacking in faith. No one in the United States has said the word bodybags since before the fighting began.

She must not have spoken to any liberals lately, they can barely stop salivating over losses and bodybags long enough to badmouth the tax cut.

[gcruse]

you don’t go on to the field at Gettysburg chattering about likely losses and the impact back home.

That's right.  And on a similar note, you don't go into war asking
how much it is going to cost.  If you are basing warfare on whether
or not you can afford it, then your reasons for going to war are inadequate,
whatever they are.

[Ruth A.]

Great post from Peggy again.

Atrocities like 9/11 give us steel in the backbone. Unfortunately, the tempering comes at a high, high sacrifice. Executing POWS, raping our military only serve to steel us again.

Yes, chemical and urban warfare are possibilities in the future. Wringing hands and discussing them ad nasuem will do no good. Instead I will pray for the troops and the leaders. I will pray that barbarians will be brought to justice and leave the mode of justice to the Lord.

I love the quote by Clancy. It is worth putting here:

The novelist Tom Clancy, a great respecter of the military and appreciator of Americans, told me: “The American people are the same people they were in 1942.” We can take losses, he said, we are just as tough as ever. But “there has to be a good reason. The people will accept what’s necessary but not what isn’t.” Meaning the American people will suffer through and accept if they believe the war is needed and America’s position is right.

[MHGinTN]

I dare say the despotic democrat party is doing plenty of polling, to judge whne to exploit the sentiments of casualties and thus the American electorate. I'm really sick of the democrats getting away with their exploitative manipulations. The Arab press and the democrat party have that in common ... they lie for effect and get away with it because their constituencies want to be lied to.

[lainde]

Wow an unexpected Peggy...Thanks Pokey!