[BlackVeil]

You are right. Not only are they not in a position to protect the US, they have been sent on a fool's errand - first it is WMDs, and now it is "nation building" - and all this will lead to more real threats in the future.

I hate it, every time I see the casualty figures. Three US soldiers died in Iraq today.

[Burkeman1]

There are so many Johnny come latelys to what they think is conservatism it is heartbreaking. They have no concept of what the historical conservative movement was in this country. They have given ground to the most idiotic of spokespeople like the insanely popular Jonah Goldberg of National Review. This is a man who calls himself conservative and yet says things like:

"The United States needs to go to war with Iraq because it needs to go to war with someone in the region and Iraq makes the most sense."

and

"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show we mean business."

News to all the blood mongers on this site- Jonah Goldberg and these Archie Bunker dime store positions DO NOT represnt any strain of conservatism and never did.

[Burkeman1]

Every casualty is tragic. But even though I am oppossed to our engagement in Iraq- the casualty figures are not that bad. From what I have read on this site and other places- the casualties we are suffering now are not that much higher than what would be experienced in peace time training if the troops were home and just on exercises. Iraq is not a military quagmire (though it does tie down over a 100,000 troops.) I think Iraq is more of a financial, political, and diplomatic quagmire. Iraq is not Viet Nam in which we experienced 250 dead soldiers or marines (times three wounded) every week for years. We lose maybe 3 to 6 men in Iraq every week and maybe half of those are due to accidents and non hostile action and about 40 wounded a week. For the number of troops we have serving in Iraq- that is not bad- and it makes it safer than say- Washington DC.

And before I get slammed again- I am not saying that the troops there are not under stress. They are. But Iraq is no Viet Nam.