We are fighting people who have tossed every aspect of the laws of war out the window, and have not only broken every part of the Geneva Convention, but have perverted the rules to their own use, putting bombs in mosques, hospitals, schools, and ambulances, and deliberately surrounding themselves with civilians while pressing their attacks.

We can still fight by the rules under these conditions, but it is very difficult, and there will be mistakes, and there will be a much greater cost in the lives of American troops.

You can make a very good argument that this tradeoff is worth making, for the long-term well-being of our nation, or even, to get dramatic, tge well-being of its soul.

But if this tradeoff is made, then it would be nice if every American death is not immediately seen as a glaring failure of policy. It's an inevitable outcome of our policy, unless we start fighting like the enemy does. Or worse.

We could erase every living person in Iraq in 48 hours if we wanted to, without any of our military personnel getting up out of a chair. But we aren't. People need to cut our military some slack.