...is the loss of Americans and others to Islamist terror throughout all the past administrations clean back to Carter, and culminating in the destruction of the World Trade Center and almost 3,000 American dead. Five times as many deaths as have died in combat in Iraq. Losses that, until 9/11, received as a response either the same legal fiction Raoul is talking about, fitful military strikes on a few targets, or way too often, retreat. Clinton bailed out on Somalia, but Reagan bailed out on Lebanon.

Our enemies learned a lesson: hurt them and they'll go away.

Naturally, the only "mess" you think the Western world is in is the war in Iraq. If only we weren't in Iraq, the world would love us, and the terrorists would all go back to camel farming. Oh, wait. On 9/11 we weren't in Iraq, were we?

At some point, like Donald, I suppose you'll focus down completely on WMD and casualties, kind of like a chicken staring at a line drawn in the dirt.