I am curious, Tom, what IS the magic number of civilians that need to die before one can question the justification of this war?

You know, that's a really good question. What would be a good number for you? Maybe America should publish a number, and broadcast it to our enemies.

"Hello, if you can see to it that this many non-combatants die, we'll go home and you'll win. We also recommend basing your operations in civilian neighborhoods and religious sites, recruiting children to run ammo, making sure you are completely indistinguishable from a civilian, killing innocent civilians on video tape and blaming America for it, and inflating casualty figures to gullible newsmen."

"Hey, everybody out there! Make it hard enough for us, or violent enough, and we'll run off screaming like little girls, just like U.N. soldiers! And you can start filling the mass graves again! Don't forget to use the word 'quagmire' a lot. Remember, there's a lot of people in America who really don't want to see you win, but they do really want to see America lose. What? Don't ask."

Thank God people who think like this haven't been in charge of defending our freedom over the years. Try to imagine WWII fought on the "quit when it gets messy" philosophy.

You quit fighting when you win the war, and you make damn sure your enemies know that, or you're going to lose for sure. The entire strategy of the people we have been fighting is to make us lose our desire to win by making it difficult and painful. Sure as hell that worked in Beirut, Somalia, Vietnam, and other places.