McGrath is right. I am perturbed by LEJ's remark that in the next war massive casualties will not be acceptable (not that I attribute bad motives to LEJ, whom I deeply respect, and everyone else here who has been through hell). But it is a revealing remark. He means massive American casualties. There seems to be a filtration system against the lives of other people meaning even a small fraction of American lives. This is perhaps understandable for every country, but in the last two wars that America has been fighting in, first, the Gulf War, 300 or so Americans lost their lives (I am not trivializing this at all), and well over 100,000 Iraqis, with thousands of children dying every few months still; second, Kosovo, where no Americans, repeat no Americans (or Canadians for that matter) lost their lives, and thousands of other people did underneath Allied bombs.

I am not blaming Americans for these messes; nor saying this is a good thing or a bad thing. I have personal opinions about both wars. I personally don't want anyone to die anywhere. But Americans should be aware that this kind of thing frightens people from other countries a lot. There is a widespread perception that only precious Americans matter, and that everyone else is target practice for testing new weapons systems.

yours, Peter T.