When i'm not busy planting flowers and making sure nobody says anything mean about anybody, i do find a few seconds a day to think.

And i think the world of our armed forces, they are by and large fine people doing a somewhat thankless job.

That said, i think they are being grossly misused right now. Saddam is a Bad Man, and should be gotten rid of, but bombs are not the way to do it. Since we have so demonstrably achieved air superiority in Iraq for the past 10 years, why not use that ability to land a C-130 in a town, dump off a crate of food, and leave a note that says something to the effect of "America loves you. Saddam does not." ? Why not back off the sanctions and let western economic development raise their standard of living, and curtail Saddam's ability to control the flow of information? We're saying that we care now, mind you, but i can't blame the Iraqi people for thinking we're talking out of both sides of our mouth given the whole 'shock and awe' festivities. War is a lazy solution here, in my opinion. Saddam could have been ousted with clever acts of kindness, a little patience, and oh yeah, inspections. This is a war of choice, not of neccessity, and unfortunately it now becomes clear that it will have a cost in american and british lives as well. this whole thing may end relatively well, and may free the iraqi people, but at the cost of many lives immediately which needn't have been squandered, to say nothing of the enmity of future bin Ladens that are being spawned right now.

Regardless of whether or not the military operation succeeds, this war has already cost too much.