It's January 2007 in Iraq

The choice for Ross was simple, but simple does not mean easy. His straightforward answer to a simple but difficult choice should stand as a shining example for the rest of us. We all face simple choices, but how often do we choose to make a sacrifice to get the right answer? The right choice sometimes requires honor.

Our Bible tells us that God gave up his only son to die for us so that we may live. But Romayne and I are not gods. We can't see the future, and we didn't give our son to die, knowing that he will live again. We gave him to fight and win and come home to us and marry and grow old and have children and grandchildren. But die he did, and his mother, dad and sisters must face that fact and go on without him, believing that someday we will meet again. Heaven is beyond our imagination and so we must wait to see what it's like.

http://zoza.com/~kniwt/obama_osama.jpg ?

Especially given that many of those people alive would have been dead if they had suffered similar wounds in Vietnam. Medical technology has advanced to the point where many can now survive them, but it's pretty grim. Hearing the Usual Suspects say "Well jeez, it's nothing compared to the amount of people dead in Vietnam, Rumsfeld was the greatest!" etc. ignore that salient point time and again -- thanks to the timing of history, it could and most likely would have been so *much* worse, and that's cold comfort.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h58/doonesburyc/db061214.gif
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h58/doonesburyc/db061216.gif

Chuck Hagel now calling bullshit(and also mentioned earlier over the break that he's probably ducking out of politics after his term ends), Joe Lieb and Warner running defense.

"The fatal flaw was when right after September 11 the president asked everyone to go on with their lives. That set the stage for no one sacrificing," said a Special Forces team sergeant who recently served in Iraq. "That's why they aren't behind it, because they don't have a stake in this war. They aren't losing or gaining anything. If you don't see it, smell it, feel it, how are you connected?"

The president also urged Americans to go shopping sometime before Xmas.

...The BBC was told by a senior administration source that the speech setting out changes in Mr Bush's Iraq policy is likely to come in the middle of next week.

Its central theme will be sacrifice.

The speech, the BBC has been told, involves increasing troop numbers.

The exact mission of the extra troops in Iraq is still under discussion, according to officials, but it is likely to focus on providing security rather than training Iraqi forces...

So let's brainstorm what possibilities he could take to prove how serious he is about this "sacrifice." Send the Twins over to USO tours?