Thank you, Jack the Sailor, for your concern for my soul. I assure that I too pray every day for God's mercy, and I'm sure I need it every bit as much as you do, though perhaps for different reasons. I apologize for the way I wrote. It was too abrupt, and I hope you'll forgive my abruptness. Please allow me to try again.

Success is defined as doing what you set out to do.

The absence of perfection is not evidence of failure. We would not adopt such a standard in any other endeavor. A police force, for example, is considered successful if it reduces crime. Yet no police force has eliminated crime. Would you say that police forces are failures, with the blood of crime victims on their hands?

Medicine has not eliminated sickness or death. Is medicine therefore a failure, with the blood of those who die on its hands?

Do you think that the invasion of Normandy was a failure? The Allies lost 10,264 men and the war still went on. Did that make it a failure?   

It is possible, this far into the discussion, to have forgotten that we are discussing the success or failure of the surge, not the morality of the entire war. It is also possible to have forgotten the purpose of the surge. The purpose of the surge was to reduce sectarian violence. 409 is less than 3,014.

Success is defined as doing what you set out to do. I trust we can all agree upon this

Kent