Tom, I think your post is a pretty good analysis of the situation. And it brings up some good philosophical points.

You say, >"If we didn't care about such things, if we were the monsters we are accused of being, we COULD have won this war in three days, by turning Iraq into gravel with conventional weapons. With nukes, it would have taken thirty minutes. Genocide always works. That's not our goal."

As much as I hesitate to devolve into a sport analogy perhaps we need to adjust our goal to keep from being outscored.

As a nation we must address the ethics of a difference in humanity by engaging in a thirty minute war (accepting your calculation) as opposed to a long drawn-out campaign.

I firmly adhere to the thesis that nukes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki SAVED lives in the long run and was thus the proper course of action.

Wars have to be fought to win.

Publius