I think the astonauts had the best opinions of the engineers on the ground. These people make 100's of life and death decisions before and during each launch. Each decision is made with crew safety first, vehicle safety second and schedule third. They seem to make a misstake every 10 years or so. Your uninformed critisism is just piling on, on people who have just lost dear friends.
And yes, these ARE the most highly trained professionals in the world.
John, this is an internet forum. It consists of millions of people who are uninformed in an endless content. Some things we know well, most we do not. We still participate in debate. For many, such comments and questions are examples of our wanting to be interested and informed by persons such as yourself on this topic. In most cases we try not to show insensitivity towards others in our comments or questions, reacting to our comments as just that is a bit off base.
If the only content being discussed here was from experts, we would be at a joint NTSB/NASA session behind a microphone. Our place is here, and you will have to accept that, and my apology if any of my questions or comments over what to me is a serious tragic matter which may illustrate my lack of expertise, but also my desire to be involved in a way other than listening to what Dan Rather has to say.